If you're like us, you love Tomato's, so, today we'll show you how to make your own Tomato Tower of Power!
You may need a few tools for this job. We recycled some old 2x6x12 deck boards and ripped them into some 8 foot 2x2's. We a…
If you're like us, you love Tomato's, so, today we'll show you how to make your own Tomato Tower of Power!
You may need a few tools for this job. We recycled some old 2x6x12 deck boards and ripped them into some 8 foot 2x2's. We also had a few used 2x4's laying around so this was a no cost project.
We start by placing two of the 2x4s on top of each other and measuring them to find the center which we marked with a pencil. Next, we drilled a hole where we marked the boards and inserted a lag bolt. Doing this allows us to rotate the 2x4s in opposite directions to create an "X". We then set the corners 3 feet apart.
Next, we used some 3 inch deck screws and secured the 2x4s to each other in the X position and removed the lag bolt. You will need to repeat this for the other side.
We then drilled pilot holes in the end of the 2x2's to prevent splitting. Be sure to do this at both ends as well!
Once this was done, we moved all the parts out to the garden for assembly. We start this by screwing one of the 2x2's into what will be the top of the structure. You don't get to see all of this as we hadn't noticed the wind blew our camera over as we working.
For the next step we measured up 15 inches from the bottom and screwed the other pair of 2x2s to complete the structure. Then, for stability we placed the legs of the structure into some hollow block tiles that had been bordering a flower garden.
The final step will be tying strings from the top rail to the bottom rail and then planting Tomato's where we place the string! Later in the year we will prune the plants to train them UP the string as we are planting "indeterminate" Tomato's. This will prevent them from sprawling on the ground and also give us earlier fruit.
