If you know this won't work...

...just tell me now.

First I thought we might make tomato cages out of leftover metal fencing. Then I attended a gardening workshop and learned that such cages can stunt tomato production because they don't allow enough sunlight to reach the plants' leaves. The presenter recommended tall stakes. While chatting with my neighbor about her stakes, I learned that the store bought kind are not cheap. That bothered me.

When David and I were discussing the construction of our compost container (using scrap lumber and scrap chicken wire, probably), I discovered a pile of trimmed branches behind our shed. I removed all the twigs and trimmed them further. Then I artfully arranged them (ha ha) over the spots where I'll put my tomato plants. They're plunged deep into the soil - we'll see if they can bear the weight of my incredibly productive tomato plants (I hope!).