This is such good stuff- thank you for writing and sharing.
I work seasonally at a big big store's garden center, and they're constantly sold out of tomato cages. The amount of times I've encouraged people to lash two sticks together is amusing; from personal experience, I almost felt as if I needed "permission" to do such a thing the first couple of times. Now I can't be stopped! Yard and garden are chock-full of stick trellises. :)