How to make tomato cages

I fed my tomato plants with lovely chicken manure tea this season, and the plants WAY OVERGREW the commercial tomato cages I’d been using for a few years. The plants got so tall and the fruits so heavy that the cages bent and fell over, entirely defeating the purpose of using the cages at all. And that was BEFORE the hurricane knocked over the cucumber teepee!

For next season I’ll be constructing the rebar cages, like yours, and maybe I’ll just use the old limp ones for herbs or something less vigorous. Meanwhile, I want to move some of the herbs indoors, but my cat wants to eat any houseplants I have within his reach.

I’ve planted grass for him, and he enjoys it, but still attacks the houseplants. I have an old aquarium, that I thought I might use for the herbs, mostly to keep the cat out of them.

Do you have any terrarium tips for me? I figure the tender herbs with shallow roots might work, like basil, oregano, thyme, sage and parsley. I’ll pot the rosemary on it’s own, since it’s a perennial, and the chives have survived several winters outdoors, so I’ll leave them to their own devices.

Do I feed a terrarium? Use a non-toxic pest control? Maybe leftover dishwater, or spray pests with salad oil? Any ideas?

Thanks again for the cage video. I’ll be on that project over the fall and winter.

Rosalie in central NH.

PS. I followed your lead on the mower tuneup. It was easy and the mower is like new. I even put on a mulching blade and now the grandkids (teenagers) want to mow down everything in the yard. Tall weeds and bushes on the edge of our dirt road are well controlled now. Gotta watch them though. They may get carried away and take out a shrub or two just for the fun of it!