Garden Yard Stakes for Flowers and Vegetables

Yard stakes can be used in the garden not just for supporting your vegetables but for supporting those beautiful flowers as well. Small garden yard stakes, similar to a wide ice cream stick, can be used to label your rows of vegetables so you do not forget what you planted and to place a date as to when they were planted.

There are two separate ways of looking at flower supports: the preventive measure and remedial way. The preventive yard stakes are needed for the "definite floppers," similar to a double peony. The idea is to be sure to place these flower supports where needed before the plants have a chance to grow tall when they need them. This way the plant is able to grow through the support so the device ends up almost invisible to the eye. A grid-type flower support is good for those plants that need to have plenty of support such as phlox and peonies. Ring-style supports are better when used for the perennials that spread outward before they burst into bloom. Asters do this, but by using the ring support it keeps the plant looking very tidy without looking as if they are tied up. If you have forgotten to place your stakes ahead of time or if some of the plants flop over unexpectedly, remedial supports become very handy to use. All that is needed are some plant ties, bamboo stakes or poles, stakes that link together, supports for the stems and a ball of string.

It is imperative to erect the ring-style garden yard stakes before your plants have had a chance to grow tall. There are some of these supports that have a double-set of rings and others that have a ring on the inside for extra support. Some plants that will benefit from the ring-style supports are large cosmos, delphiniums, dinnerplate-style dahlias, and phlox. Grid-style flower supports are very similar to the ring-style except the openings are smaller and they also need to be placed early so the plant is able to grow through the small grid openings. These supports give more support than the larger opening ring-style and are also available in several sizes. When you install these supports it is better to place the legs in the soil first and position them to be the same height; once they are level you can snap the grid in place. The asters, cosmos, peonies, phlox, tall snapdragon, and zinnias will benefit greatly from this grid-style support.

Curved linking yard stakes and Y-stakes are excellent for the plants that have already toppled over. They work wonders when you want to keep the plants from reaching over onto a path or walkway. They will also help control energetic plants from smothering the plants that are less powerful. Both styles of yard stakes are good anywhere when you want to encircle a grouping or you can set up a line of them down the center of the flower bed for extra support. Any type of plant or flower will benefit from these stakes, all you do is add a section when needed or take away sections you no long want. Gathering rings and single-stem supports are used for plants that need support while blooming. They are also handy when a plant sends out a flower stem that falls onto nearby plants or is weak. Every now and then a plant develops an inferior stem or a strong wind bends the stem. This is when the gathering ring or stem support comes in very handy. Plants that generally benefit form these supports are gladiolus, Oriental and Asiatic lilies, foxglove, and bearded irises.   

Having a limited space for growing is no reason for not growing some vegetables and flowers. A vegetable cage or tomato cage is a good support for container gardening. When you use one of the cage type supports you will be able to grow snow peas, peppers and tomatoes many climbing plants or flowers on a deck, balcony, patio or a small garden area.You just need to be sure the container has sufficient drainage holes and is large enough to handle the growing root system of your plant. Vegetables cages, tomato cages, ladders and trellises can also be used as flower yard stakes or supports.

Trellises not only work well for flowers but also for the vegetables that grow vines along the ground. To keep your cucumbers or zucchini off the ground insert a number of trellises along the back side of the row and when they start to vine out train them to weave in and out of the trellises. These garden yard stakes will not only keep your food off the ground but it gives you more room to grow other fruits and vegetables. Cages, ladders and trellises are also excellent for tomatoes, snow peas, pole beans, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers and any other type of vine fruit or vegetable.

As you can see both a vegetable garden and flower garden will do extremely well with many of the garden yard stake designs that are available. Some of them such as the Y-stakes or curved-link stakes are better when used as yard stakes for supporting flowers instead of vegetables.