Recycled tomato cage idea

Have you ever noticed a garden isn't complete until the tomato cages go up, LOL??? I put mine on the tomato plants yesterday and now it looks like a full fledge garden. A few years ago I started using the ultimator green tomato supports along with my round metal ones. On the down side, I had to BUY more cages yesterday and of course the only place that had any left was Home Depot at almost $7 each. I bit the bullet and bought 7 more of them for a total of 14 so I can be done with those crazy metal ones all together. The plastic stakes are sooooo much easier to store and work sooooo much better. But now what to do with all those cages???

I am planning on recycling the metal cages though for my Dahlia this year. I found a site where you flip the cage upside down around the Dahlia plant and cut off the spokes that would normally go in the ground. You take the pieces of metal you cut off and for a U and use those to anchor the upside down tomato cages in the ground. And they should be easier to store without the sharp spikes getting caught on everything. Fingers crossed it works. This is my first year growing Dahlia and I think I have over 40 planted in a 100 foot hedge!!

Dahlia supports using tomato cages

I have never tried growing Dahlias but the idea looks terrific. I understand they can get pretty big and this looks like a great solution.

I turned my cages upside down in placed them in large patio pots. I wrapped a little extra vine around them then planted sweet peas and scarlet runner beans to grow up the cage, and a few ground cover plants to grow down the pot. You can use vine or string to close the prongs at the top, or just drop a wood or decorative finial on them. It looks great and you can place a vine on it that is edible if you like.
I will post a photo in just a bit
Happy gardening