Ideas for Trellis Gardening

A few shots from our kitchen garden...We find all sorts of things to grow stuff on.

I extensively container garden in NC - I’ve found both 2” of mulch and lining planters with cardboard really help with moisture retention and heat!

Fellow Van Islander here. Maybe when the border opens up, someone with a truck can be commandeered to bring a few panels over from Washington. Depending on how big they are I may be able to get a few.

@Ryan Gregory: Welcome to permies!  With your set-up, you won't have to worry about bunnies or deer! It's amazing how much food you can grow in a small area with some thought and effort - and good on you to leave a nice spot for the dog!

Thank you and correct!  Just squirrels for mammals. They can be quite destructive if they start playing, especially if the dog goes out to scare them off, but leave most of the food alone.

Plenty of song birds visit the flowers and hummingbird that owns my place.  I’ve also dealt with spider mites aphids and hornworms before on the 3rd floor.  For two years I’ve had a family of anole that lives near by as well as I see a handful of babies and some big ones.  The more wild it gets the less plant destructive pests I get (definitely not a spot for those afraid of spiders or other creepy crawlers).  

I have successfully used 1/2" rebar (left over from another project) to support fence panels.  the rebar was driven into the ground a couple of feet.

My girlfriend had a crew come and prune a Big Leaf Maple that was blocking the view in the back yard. The branches have been used to support several growies in the front yard.

Several support a few varieties of Pole Beans.

One was bridged across two posts that train/support Apple trees, then twine was run down to stakes in the ground placed by volunteer Cherry Tomatoes sprouting in the area. The Tomatoes are wrapped around the twine as it grows. Side branches are broken off.

This picture shows several trellising methods. A 4' high fence (hidden by greenery) along the public sidewalk supports a Trumpet Vine showing it's pretty red flowers. In front of the fence is a potted Jostaberry Bush. Buttercup Squash planted nearby use the Trumpet Vine and Jostaberry Bush as supports to grow on. A volunteer Cherry Tomato growing at the base of the Jostaberry Bush pot uses the whole Jostaberry Bush as a support to grow on, no cage required. The Jostaberry finished fruiting just as the Cherry Tomato started to dominate, making for perfect succession planting. Tomatoes will grow throughout most plants. Rose Bushes make nice scaffolds, except the thorns tear at the fruit and your flesh!

Cool idea for a thread! I try to make this bed spiffy every year since it’s near the house. This season I may have gone to far. This trellis is ten foot wide and six foot tall. It’s made from bamboo and biodegradable twine. It houses three tomatoes, two peppers, one squash and four cucumber plants. Comfrey is in the middle so mulch is never far away. Oh yeah, it also lights up at night!

Yes,  bamboo is great for quick trellis building! I've got P. nigra, P. dulcis and P.nidularia farcta, so I've got lots of different sizes to choose from when I want to build something. Hubby whines that it's an invasive weed, but when his ducks were being attacked by Ravens, it was P. dulcis to the rescue as it made quick rafters to hold some netting over the duck run. I'd have been very tempted to grow beans up it, except the deer would have got them all!

This is an edible form my neighbor likes to eat. Once they get to big I get them. I chop large amounts down in the fall and drag them several hundred yards to my house. They sit all winter and get used in the spring. I’ve never had any root after doing that. I use each piece for one or two seasons then they become mulch in the gardens.

I've also had great luck using the concrete mesh panels zip tied together.   Easier to find and transport than full cattle panels.   Squash,  melon, cukes, tomatoes,  and pole beans and malibar spinach started on one end..    the closest section is new this year,  will create beds in the fall.  Planting in pots for now.   Have added one more section each summer.  

Oh,   have also used the concrete mesh for vertical supports.    Here's one on the end of my T clothesline post for my hardy kiwi.    They are easy to cut too.  

Arches as structures for vines are one of the most well known options. These allow you to add a unique and artistic touch in your work. Also, they work to some range as a way to create roofed roads. The normal thing is that they are made of wood, but everything will depend on the location and how we use it in our lawn or garden. It will give you a feel of green houses and in any case, it is advisable to paint them to give them additional resistance.

Uh oh, Pearl you lost me on the triangle build... maybe you can explain a bit more what you're suggesting.  I've not seen a triangular greenhouse or grow cover for plants other than sail-cloth but my material is very heavy gauge wire I'm working with.  I won't be able to cut it because it's too thick for any hand tools I own or can cut with.

Oh my if this isn't the most lush "kitchen garden" I've ever seen!!  So beautiful.  Look at the size of your sweet potatoes and the cukes are tall as a house! Wow!!!  Looks like you could feed the neighborhood with the size and productivity of your garden.  What is the size of your individual beds?  Size of the entire fenced area?  Just amazing1

Denise Cares::

Pearl wrote:An interesting thought: what about making it triangular rather than arch? Structure might be a lot easier that way. I was thinking about the bracing of that wire as an arch, and everything I could think of right off was complex, as it ends up holding a lot of weight. But triangular would be a lot less complex.

A quick sketch of what I mean..


Black is your wire, brown is wooden (or metal) posts, bolted together at the top, and sunk into the ground a bit. Basically, make upside down V's of wood, and then stand your wire on edge. Look at the pics of the teepee lashing above in a post by MK Neal  Sort of like that, only I'd use bolts, but that's just me, I am a hardware and tools fan. If your wire is sturdy enough to hold the posts straight, you wouldn't need to put a top bar, if not, you'd need one.

I checked the drawing with a scale as I made it, the point of that is 6.5 feet off  the ground. I have the angle at 22.5 degrees, because that makes it a 45 degree angle, easy for cuts or measuring.

So this might need a top bar, but if you have the Vs around 6 foot apart, I don't think you'd need a mid bar. And definitely wouldn't need other legs on it, triangular structures are VERY solid if they are fastened well.  I looked up pictures, and hit this



That kind of idea, with your wire leaning on it and sturdy enough wood or metal to hold it up ....

This is my single pole grape trellis. It’s possibly the best garden idea I’ve ever had! 😂
I was constantly disappointed with my standard trellises. The grapes were vigorous but airflow was lacking and rust was a constant issue.
I watched wild grapes grow up trees and fan out without difficulty. Taking the queue from nature I planted cedar poles that reached a height of 10-12 feet and planted muscadines around them. I let the vines reach the top and prune them back to that spot every winter. With the summer’s growth the vines stretch out. When the grapes form the heavier vines fall to within my reach for an easy harvest.

Just an update on my teepee trellis harvest this morning. The Trombochino Rampicante.

Great idea! I also cut up my 2x4 inch rabbit fencing to make fabric staples for the yard. Lots cheaper than store bought.

We grew cherry tomatoes and beans on a trellis this year.  It was amazing to watch them grow.

Cindy Baker wrote:Great idea! I also cut up my 2x4 inch rabbit fencing to make fabric staples for the yard. Lots cheaper than store bought.

Cindy, would you post a pic of the finished staples or diagram how they were cut please? I'm trying to figure out the type of wire you used and where to make cuts.  What I know as 'rabbit' fencing has rather small holes for cage making and would be very difficult to make lots of cuts by hand.

So, I finally picked the last of the green beans today. I still had two plants producing. Here's a quick pic of how they grew up the cage

I also use teepee trellises as Christmas trees.

Jay Angler wrote:Serious "Cattle Panel" envy up here on Vancouver Isl. The only place I ever saw them wanted $80 Canadian for one and that was 10 years ago. Island living is expensive, even when the Island in question is larger than 3 Canadian Provinces (PEI, Newfoundland/Labrador, and New Brunswick) and larger than the US States of Hawai'i, VT, NH, MA, and CT, and apparently we're bigger than Belgium and Israel - I could go on, but it won't help.

You should be able to get something like spools of safety lock wire and make something that's really similar.  It won't be quite as heavy duty as the cattle (or my personal preference) hog panels but you should be able to get that shipped in at a pretty reasonable price.

A more natural trellis: corn stalks for climbing beans. Here is a visual of the three sisters planting:

During the last few weeks, a lot of my spare moments have been making trellises! I kind of like that my trellises often need to be rebuilt every year or two, because it allows me to to have a lot of fun learning how to make trellises better!

Oh Nicole, thank you!! Those homemade trellises and cages are so inspiring for me! I have only prunings, mostly long straightish willow pollardings, so those look doable, and definitely better than I made last year.
Do you tie that mesh yourself from twine, or do you buy mesh? If you buy it, how does it look so perfectly fitted to your homemade trellis shapes? I bought mesh but it doesn't fit properly on my poles and stakes and teepee. And if you make, can you share details of how?

Here are a few of my trellises made with largely salvaged or leftover materials. I also have heard tell about how saying “its a trellis” can transcend the troubles caused by departments of making you sad when they question your fence or other structures’ being an excuse for them to extort us.

Rebecca Norman wrote:Do you tie that mesh yourself from twine, or do you buy mesh? If you buy it, how does it look so perfectly fitted to your homemade trellis shapes? I bought mesh but it doesn't fit properly on my poles and stakes and teepee. And if you make, can you share details of how?

I made it myself! I was visiting my neighbor and saw that they'd made a pea trellis with just string. It was surprisingly simple!

What I do to make a trellis:

(1) Put in the vertical polls
(2) [optional] Weave some branches/sticks horizontally for added strength.
(3) Tie string on an edge post and then wrap horizontally around each post until I get to the next side. Tie string on the last poll.
(4) Move up a few inches, repeat Step 4, until you've got enough horizontal rows.
(5) Tie your string at the top. Going down, wrap your string around each horizontal string (or poll) going down. Tie string on the bottom string/poll.
(6) Move over however many inches you want, and repeat Step 5.

Here's a better picture:

I forgot to add that almost any fence, structure, or tree can be a trellis. Vines evolved to climb riverside or other forests’ edge trees. It was a great reinforcement for finishing our 800ft/1acre zone 1-2 fence to know it would also he our grape-raspberry-blackberry trellis. The inherent soil building benefits of a fence (including sediment catchment and soil disturbance prevention) provides another positive feedback loop.

Last season I used some branches I pruned out of a maple tree on the property to build this sturdy four sided trellis. Our Kentucky pole beans loved this spot and produced enough to feed my family of three for the entire winter. (Sadly I don’t have a better shot from the end of the season to show how well it supported the weight of all those beans.) This was the second iteration. The first (second pic) was too top heavy and fell over during summer storms. The key for me was leaving the ends long enough to bury and anchor them well into the ground. I’m sure it’ll decompose and break down sooner than I’d like, but I figure it’s a better solution than purchasing something plastic, and there certainly isn’t a shortage of branches at our place. This season I hope to experiment with rebar.

I have permanent raised beds in my garden. I don't mean the kind with sides; i mean the beds are a few inches higher than the aisles. Each year a fresh bed gets a fence down the middle, composed of metal fenceposts about ten feet apart, with a piece of field fence stretched between them (on one end i curled the fence around to make a tube that goes over the post, but then figured out on the other end I could just alternate putting the post on one side and the other of the wires). In March i plant peas along one side. In June, before the peas decline and get ripped out, i put pole beans on the other side, to take over the job of creating partial shade for the things that go on both sides of this fence; lettuce, spinach, radishes, maybe celery, maybe chard. Originally I used it for brassicas but they didn't seem to do well so i put them elsewhere now even though i'd have put them on the list of things that appreciate some summer shade.
I also have an arched gateway for my flowerbed, built out of beech saplings. it's very elegant but i have to replace it every five years because it rots so I'm keeping an eye out for a metal version--even just the side panels. If I only had to replace the top piece every few years, I wouldn't mind that.

Quick inexpensive trellis -

Steel T posts, 1 1/4" PVC pipe T on top, 1/2" or 3/4" conduit passing through the horizontal openings in the PVC  T from post to post.
Saw that on Youtube from one of the urban farmers but can't remember who.

In spite of recent price increases on almost everything, so far, the price of T posts here has remained the same.
8' are roughly the same price here as 6' at $7 -8 .

You can often buy a big box of the PVC  Ts on Ebay for very little compared to store price.

Conduit has gone up, from a dollar a stick for 1/2" to $4, but still an inexpensive way to go.

going vertical:

I'll hose clamp or lash to the T post with baling twine a piece of or whole stick of 1/2" conduit for a vertical height extension.

Speaking of baling twine...what a useful thing!

I keep a BIG roll of the heavy duty 4000/350 size on hand and use it for everything from tying up tomatos, trees and whatever other plants to lashing things together much as Asian folks have done to build with with bamboo for centuries.
It seems to last a LONG time...as in 10 years on some things I did.
link for example:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/orangeline-polypropylene-baler-twine-4-000-ft-350-lb-knot-strength

I cut it with a propane torch so the ends are melted together and don't unravel.

Many mention the container watering issue. Here's something that will buy you a lot of time between waterings.
Leon here has a LOT of good videos. Much to learn there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2brqRAR9Dkk

This could be scaled up or down easily.
I have a number of these and they work well.