Ideas for Trellis Gardening

Jenny Ives wrote:Observing nature I am experimenting with creating a 'trellis' out of giant spanish grass ( cane/bamboo) for grapes.

Absolutely!  I love cutting green bamboo, de-leafing it, arching in place while green, then letting it dry.  If you have room to grow a patch of bamboo you'll never be out of fencing/building/arching materials.  They build houses out of this stuff in the far east!

Joshua States wrote:With all these beautiful trellises, I'm almost embarrassed to show what I had to do. First a disclaimer. I have to keep my tiny garden in "jail" to defend it against the local wildlife, so I built a cage out of chain link dog kennel panels. Then I had to wrap the walls in 1 inch hex wire (most folks call this chicken wire) and cover the gable ends with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. This tries valiantly to keep the rabbits, gophers, birds, and other terrorists out, but still manages to fail somewhat.

The pressure the bowed panels put against the wood frame is balanced by cables and turnbuckles attached to ground anchors.

Casie Becker wrote:An important note on using wire deer as trellises .  You should probably save it for green beans, gerkin cucumbers and other things that don't grow large fruit.  We're going to have to slice some of our cantaloupe up on the vine to harvest.  They're caught inside the deer.

Casie Becker wrote:An important note on using wire deer as trellises .  You should probably save it for green beans, gerkin cucumbers and other things that don't grow large fruit.  We're going to have to slice some of our cantaloupe up on the vine to harvest.  They're caught inside the deer.

Matt Todd wrote:Here's my latest trellis creation based on the principles of tensegrity. The 3 cattle panels are overlapped by a few inches and bound by hog rings. The bottom bars are cut off so that the sharp ends stick into the ground.
The pressure the bowed panels put against the wood frame is balanced by cables and turnbuckles attached to ground anchors. The wood frame is stuck into 4x4 sleeve anchors, which are basically a 3 foot spike pounded into the ground.
The panels stick to the frame by resting into scraps of channel aluminum (with a few fencing staples for good measure.)

Total length is 12 feet, depth is 8 feet, and the bowed cattle panels are 12 feet. 7 feet tall. I will be using this to showcase native vines as it's part of a growing native garden. I wanted more of a cave-like alcove than a tunnel so I can put a bench in there overlooking the yard.