How to Make Homemade Tomato Cages and Other Useful Homesteading Tips

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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/GREGORY JOHNSTON
Sam Eisman of Greenfield Park, New York offers a suggestion for making a homemade tomato cages on rocky soil: make a tipi.
  • Most gardeners know that a sprinkling of blood meal in and around the garden will ward off hungry rabbits. Unfortunately, though, blood meal is awfully expensive … even if you use only a little bit at a time. Mrs. T.C. Wallin of Loves Park, Illinois offers this welcome suggestion: “Soak a piece of raw liver in a bucket of hot water for several hours, then drizzle the resulting ‘liver tea’ around your garden and in between plants. You’ll not only be improving your soil, you’ll be protecting your vegetables from nibbling bunnies … at a fraction of the cost of blood meal!”
  • If you’ve ever stashed a hay rake, sickle, garden hose, bushel basket, brooder lamp, or other piece of seasonal farm gear away for safe-keeping — only to spend half a day searching for the (suddenly) misplaced item the next time it was needed — you’ll want to heed the following two suggestions submitted by Betty Parsons of Ardmore, Pennsylvania: [1] The next time you’re “redding out” the barn loft, toolshed, attic, etc., make a small map of the storage area showing what items you put where … then tack the reminder on the wall, or clip it to the feed store calendar. [2] Attach labels describing the above-stored item(s) to the bridging between the rafters of your loft or attic.
  • Published on May 1, 1977
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