How to Make Homemade Tomato Cages and Other Useful Homesteading Tips

Learn homesteading tips such as a tip for shelling peas, a recipe for homemade salve and how to cook dry beans.

By Nancy Bubel
May/June 1977

Tomatoes
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Sam Eisman of Greenfield Park, New York offers a suggestion for making a homemade tomato cages on rocky soil: make a tipi.
PHOTO: FOTOLIA/GREGORY JOHNSTON
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  • 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!"

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  • 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.
  • Here's an ingenious — and effortless — way to improve your pasture: Simply mix one tablespoon of untreated, unhulled grass seed into each cow's daily rations during the spring and summer months. The undigested seed will be planted at random in the animal's droppings, complete with "natural fertilizer" to start it off right. Doug Bliss of Shawnee, Oklahoma — who sent us this bit of lore — says you'll soon have the best pasture around if you follow the above advice. "Especially," he adds, "if you'll use Bermuda grass seed. "
  • Building a fence across a creek can be tricky, especially if the water level varies a great deal from season to season. The next time you're faced with this chore, you might want to try the novel "swinging creek fence" idea sent in by Jerry Whittamore of Kingsport, Tennessee. Jerry's swinging barrier has three virtues: [1] It's made entirely of low-and no-cost materials (poles, scrap wood, and old tires). [2] It won't get clogged up with debris — or wash away — when the water level rises. And [3] it keeps the cows out of the neighbor's corn patch.
  • The next time you accidentally spill coffee on a light-colored rug ... go ahead and splash beer on the soiled area too! Dierdre McAuliffe of Alberta, Canada claims that her family found coffee stains impossible to remove from their carpet until — by a happy coincidence — someone spilled beer on a coffee-stained portion of the rug. "Just rub some suds lightly into the carpet's nap," says Dierdre, "and the spot should come clean. If it doesn't, repeat the procedure:"
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