I have several cages made from salvaged concrete reinforcement wire (approx. 5'H) & several made from the rolled fencing wire(approx. 4'H) you can find in most home improvement stores. I use the wire cone tomato cages inside these (i.e. plant, insert small cage, then place cylinder over cage) & tie or clip the tops of the cages to the cylinders. I also tie/wire a few scrap rebar pieces around the outside for extra support as the plants grow, to help keep them from tipping over. This might seem complicated, but once it's done, I do not have to keep tying the plants as they grow, just tuck stray branches inside every so often. My tomatoes are in the ground, BTW. I like the concrete reinforcement cylinders for indeterminates that can quickly overflow the shorter cages. I used bolt cutters to cut the concrete reinforcement wire - & gloves are helpful as well - that stuff is rusty & tough!

Well, the last two years, particularly late in the year, around August-November, there have been more butterflies than ever in our neighborhood. My neighbors have even commented on the number of butterflies they've seen! I just kind of chuckle to myself (tee hee hee). But, it is harder to attract them in an urban setting, when their habitat is usually prairie, either tall or short grass, woodsy areas, and wet areas, and not an urban garden. Slowly but surely, they are stopping in more often. My neighbors around me usually let their backyards go wild, too, so maybe that helps as well. My friend Linda, in Kingfisher, though, just gets tons and tons and tons of butterflies in her garden that she grows specifically for butterflies. In fact, she got pipevine swallowtails this week for the first time ever! Hers have been planted about 3 years now. It takes awhile for the vines and/or plants to grow, and then to populate them with the butterflies you're trying to attract. But, she lives in a smaller, rural town. Here in the city, it's a different story. Last year, she helped me get started with Monarchs, Gulf Fritillaries and Silvery Checkerspots. Once I had a few eggs, it was Katie Bar the Door. I had Monarchs everywhere, and raised 100+ myself. I've had Black Swallowtails for several years, as well as Giant Swallowtails - but in small numbers. I don't get the HUGE numbers like you guys in more rural areas. But, if I had more, I wouldn't have the food supply for them either. One thing for sure. Once they find your garden, they WILL be back next year. It's like they have some kind of built-in radar that brings them back year after year. I had to do a lot of things, though, like I had to quit using even the most innocuous pesticide - like Safer soap for instance. I cannot believe that 6 years ago I was using BT on my cleome to get rid of the Cabbage White caterpillars! Oh, my - I was a butterfly exterminator! I had to plant host plants. You'll get a few butterflies with just nectar plants, but with host plants you get so many more butterflies. It has been a work in progress (still is), a lesson in patience (still is), and the best experience of my life! I would not want a garden without butterflies and moths - ever! Or, the other critters that come along here and there, too. I appreciate so much more in life by undertaking this personal journey with God's creatures. I feel a connection with the earth, the air, the sky, the water, the wind that I never felt before. Do you know what I mean? My spirit was never fed at all by working in an office. But, gardening and especially butterfly gardening, fills my spirit with such love and a realization that there must be something more out there beyond this physical existence with which I connect at a deeper level. Oh, I am getting gooey, huh? Where else are the butterflies going to go but the city, along with many other of God's creatures? We have driven them into the city by taking away their resources, their food, their water, their homes. If I can provide just a small, tiny area to help them along, then I am doing my part. What would it be like if we all did that? Susan

"I'm not getting as many tomatoes as I have in the past, though, and I'm still waiting for my first ripe one. Is it the shade, or maybe our wonky weather this year?" I suspect that you may be getting lower fruitset on your tomatoes because sunflowers do have some allelopathic proerties. Just how much has been widely debated, some people see little effect, and others see more, but it is a known fact. It could be due to whether or not sunflowers have been grown in that location previously or the variety of sunflower being grown. There is a Colorado State paper by Amanda Broz (2006) on the "Allelopathic potential of sunflower (Helianthus annuus)" that says in part that different varieties of sunflowers exhibit differing abilities to inhibit germination or growth of various plants. I am including a link to a Google Scholar search for sunflower alleopathy. You can decide for yourself if this is something you want to repeat, especially if you grow your sunflowers in the same location each year as the effect seems to build up in the soil if the plants are planted successively. (Commercial sunflower growers rotate follow their sunflower crops with a different crop each year to avoid the allelopathic buildup in the soil.) Betsy Here is a link that might be useful: Sunflower Allelopathy

Yep, it has a name - Florida Weave. Used by many and generally works well. There are some great pics of it in some of the posts here. Search 'florida weave' if you want to take a look at them. You are right, in long rows additional poles are needed. ;) I had some 20 left-over plants and not enough cages for them this year so I rigged up a long FW row for them and set 6' T-posts every 3rd plant (every 6' or so). Working great so far but like yours, mine are still only about 3-4' tall. I think I still prefer my CRW cages though. ;) Dave