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Staking is a simple technique but an important one for vegetable & flower growers alike. For large-flowered plants such as dahlias, asters, & peonies, staking allows the blooms to show to best advantage & keeps them from getting top-heavy after a rain. Tall, fragile-stemmed plants like delphiniums often need help weathering storms. In the vegetable garden, supporting plants with stakes or other supports will mean the difference between a good harvest & a poor one. If you have ever attempted to grow tomatoes without staking the plants or growing them in cages, you know how hard it’s to salvage a decent crop. Whatever tomatoes you’re able to find under the heavy weight of the plants often succumb to attacks from insects & larger animals or rot.

Staking does not have to be unattractive, an important consideration in the flower garden. In actual fact, if done correctly, it is not in the least bit an intrusion. Properly staked plants have no visible means of support the foliage grows up to hide the stakes, strings, & wires.

There are many different ways to stake plants. As a general rule, it is best to start early in the season, so the leaves have a chance to cover the supports & you can train the plant as it grows. It is not easy to stake a plant that has sprawled on the ground or has flopped over after a heavy rain. You can easily break or crush stems. Furthermore, leaves & flowers will not look quite as graceful as they would if properly trained from the start.

Bamboo Canes: Bamboo canes are lightweight, sturdy, & available in many thicknesses from pencil-thin to several-inch canes suitable for staking tomatoes or large flowered dahlias. Use the thinner ones for supporting stems of delphiniums or other top-heavy beauties. Select a bamboo cane about two-thirds as tall as the plant will be at maturity & insert it into the ground close to the base of the plant. Then use yarn, strips of soft fabric, or strips of old pantyhose to tie the flower stem to the stake. Add more ties as the plant grows taller. For multi-stemmed flowers such as chrysanthemums, use a single stake to support more than one stem. Tie twine or yarn to the stake, gather the stems, & loop the twine loosely around them.

You can also use bamboo canes to make a sort of cat’s-cradle around clumps of flowers such as peonies. Insert four or five canes around the plant. Again, they should be two-thirds as tall as the plant at maturity Then tie twine to one & wrap it around the others in turn. Tie it off on the first cane. Add rings of twine every 6 to 12 inches as the plant grows. You can also weave the twine through the plant foliage from one stake to its opposing one to create an extra network of support.

Pea Staking: When you prune your trees in early spring, do not burn those trimmings. Instead, save them & use them to stake such weak-stemmed perennials as coreopsis or gypsophila & such annual climbers as sweet peas. Right. When the plants are still small, simply stick twiggy brush into the ground near them. As they grow, the plants will climb over the network of twigs & their foliage will soon hide the twigs from view. Pea staking is most successful for plants that do not grow taller than about 2 feet. The twigs should be about 6 inches shorter than the plant at maturity.

Wire Cages: Round or square  wire cages similar to but smaller than the ones used to grow tomatoes are available for perennials such as peonies. Ready-made cages have wire legs that you simply push into the ground. You do not need to tie plants to wire frames; they simply grow up & through the wire & get all the support they need from the enclosure. Cages need to be put in place in early spring, while the plants are still small. You can buy cages ready-made or make your own using galvanized large-mesh.

Marc Warren offers a vegetable gardening tip of the day - such as how to grow beans & peas - on the Gardening Mania blog. For lots more help-fuladvice, visit http://gardeningmania.blogspot.com