Help with Trellis

[helagumamela]

I visited my aunt yesterday, and I saw that she had a trellis built in her garden. Of course, I envied her beautiful garden, so I am now thinking of adding a trellis to our garden, too. I also thought that if I have one of this made, I can plant climbers. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestion on what material I should use for this project? I am looking for something affordable yet durable. Thanks a lot!

 

[Chuck]

I visited my aunt yesterday, and I saw that she had a trellis built in her garden. Of course, I envied her beautiful garden, so I am now thinking of adding a trellis to our garden, too. I also thought that if I have one of this made, I can plant climbers. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestion on what material I should use for this project? I am looking for something affordable yet durable. Thanks a lot!

Heavy duty wire will last a lot longer than wood when fabricating something like a trellis. There are also interesting trellis's made out of PVC on the internet. Just google pvc trellis

 

[helagumamela]

PVC Trellis? Thanks so much for that! I did Google and I came with these images. Do you think they are good designs?

 

[Carolyn]

We put in a couple of new beds this year but wanted to use as much natural material as we had around our property. We pulled these maple limbs from the brush pile and screwed them to the border. You can see we ran a line of jute across the length on the bottom and looped the lines up over the top limb. It was easy to weave any needed lines. Our peas loved it. I started them in the hoop house and then transplanted them to that bed. There are bush beans on the other side. This was a brand new bed and we have a terrible problem with crabgrass in my town but we had lots of produce from this simple setup. The trellis was practically free.

 

[helagumamela]

We put in a couple of new beds this year but wanted to use as much natural material as we had around our property. We pulled these maple limbs from the brush pile and screwed them to the border. You can see we ran a line of jute across the length on the bottom and looped the lines up over the top limb. It was easy to weave any needed lines. Our peas loved it. I started them in the hoop house and then transplanted them to that bed. There are bush beans on the other side. This was a brand new bed and we have a terrible problem with crabgrass in my town but we had lots of produce from this simple setup. The trellis was practically free.

This is amazing. We have a lot of branches/barks here that fell when a typhoon hit our city. I think I can use those just like what you did. Is jute strong enough to support the plants especially when they are already producing vegetables?

 

[Carolyn]

We did it with tomatoes too. The legs are screwed to the border and tied together at the top with jute. We had to lash two limbs together across the top because we didn't have any long enough.They need to overlap at least 18 inches I think. Then we used poles for support and lashed everything together. It takes two people to get this going. You can always add after that. Jute is very strong. I put one vertical pole for each plant (we had six) and tried to guide the vines up and over the top. These are heirloom Cherokee purple and Brandywine tomatoes. Each plant has a piece of pvc pipe to guide water to the roots. You wouldn't want to put in the PVC if the plants are already in. We had plenty of tomatoes for two people. I use crochet yarn in the garden a lot. I always keep a ball in my bag for tying up this and that. Jute or yarn and a knife in my pocket keeps me from running back and forth all summer. Just try to be careful not to break the plants if they are loaded already.

 

[Sunny]

If you are searching for another economical material for trellis, consider using recycled materials. I have seen trellises made of old gates, wires of old beds, and even bicycle wheels, which I think are pretty cool. This way, you hit 2 goals: making a beautiful trellis garden and reducing environmental waste.