Kaleidoscope Plant/Tomato Cage : FirstLook
Functional Garden Art
Many years ago we got a bunch of plant supports from Gardener’s Supply Company for the tomatoes in our raised-bed garden. After seven years, those steel supports are still in excellent shape and are put to use every season.
As functional as they are, though, they are not much to look at. While this may not be a big problem for our suburban friends, we city gardeners want to maximize the enjoyment of our limited green spaces. Gardener’s Supply Company has made it easier this season with their exclusive heavy-duty sculptural tomato support!
Kaleidoscope Tomato Cage
- 5/16″ diameter powder-coated steel, glass
- 22″ square x 65-1/4″ H overall
- 2 panels with color glass pieces pre-mounted
- 4 connector panels
- 4 ground stakes: 14″ H
- Weatherproof
- Assembly required
NOTE: While possible to do the assembly by just one person, the task is far easier with two.
All of the panels were well protected and secured with A LOT of stretchy cellophane wrap. Trying to rip the plastic wrap off is not going a good idea, trust us on this 🙂 We found it easiest to just cut the wrapping using a serrated steak knife, although our assistant insisted that something called “a pair of scissors” would work also (it’s a Mars/Venus thing, apparently).
Assembly is self-evident, but do heed the direction’s suggestion of attaching the panels by inserting the lower connectors FIRST ; the four pins of each connector cannot by angled in and must be pushed straight down all at once.
After assembly, the structure will stand freely, but is not rigid along the horizontal dimension. It can be shifted to be the shape of a square or a parallelogram. We like that because it will fit into a lot more sections of the RainyDayGarden.
Designed by artist and urban gardener Allegra DeAngelo, one of Gardener’s Supply Company’s official garden testers, this functional art piece, along with being a tomato cage, should be an excellent structure for climbing vines (clematis, morning glories, etc) and such. We also expect it to look great even in winter time, especially with the snow!
Our overall first impression of the Kaleidoscope Tomato Cage? Heavy-duty welds on all the pieces, two-person assembly required but not difficult (10-minutes), solid structure once assembled.
We are eager to set this up outside to see how it looks in the sunlight, but will have to wait until after the Nor’easter!!!
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