Last year we used traditional tomato cages for our ‘maters, but I decided to do something different this year. Given that our raised beds are a few feet apart, I thought that we could use 16’ cattle panels to create arches over the walkway, resulting in what I’ve dubbed the Tomato Tunnel.

Getting the panels home was a bit of a task, but with some bending & tying down, we got it done.

Here are some pics from when we installed the first couple of panels in early July:

We got a few more just a week or so ago, by which point the tomato plants were already getting really big and unruly. I did my best to prune and tie them up to the cattle panels, but things were a bit jungle-y out there. I think this will work great next year, though, when we can prune to a central stem and train them up the panels. We’ll be able to fit a ton of plants along here! I’d also love to use them for other climbers like peas and zukes.

Here’s how things were looking yesterday–we should be harvesting some tomatoes before too long!