Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by Michelle
I’m excited today to give you a glimpse into my DIY garden trellis idea that my daughters and I hatched many springs ago. We needed a good trellis but had zero money to go buy one. Who am I kidding? Even if I had hundreds to invest in a trellis, I would have preferred THIS over a store-bought trellis any day.
Plus, in the amount of time it takes us to build our own free trellis every spring, we probably couldn’t drive to town and back.
Why we’d rather build our own trellis.
For us, on our rural New England farm, it’s an 11-mile drive to the nearest stop sign; 18 miles to the nearest stop light; a 50-minute-round-trip-drive–in 3 different directions–to one of three closest towns. So, no, instead of driving to buy one, I’d much rather go for a short walk in the woods and into my barn to come up with the 2 ingredients I need to make the best-ever, custom-designed trellis. Every year our trellises are different. Every year each trellis is perfectly suited for our garden.
Planning the trellis.
So every spring, when the momma Robin is busy gathering choice creepy crawly snacks for her sweet little ones, and a broody hen or two is huddling her chicks under her wings in safe alcoves around the farm, a daughter and I make plans for our garden trellis.
Because our sunny window ledges are filled with green, growing promise, some of which will quickly need supports in order to grow tall and lush.
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Building the trellis.
Plan. First, we plan where in the garden we’d like a centerpiece walk-thru, or a beautiful green arbor, or a secret teepee fort that will be treasured hide away for any small friends who visit our garden this summer.
Gather. We gather long branches from the woods. With 14 wooded acres, this part is a piece of cake for us. But I realize this step would probably be the biggest challenge for many readers. If you can find an annual source for branches, you can revisit the same friend or park every spring. If you know of a wooded area that you have access to, you’d be doing your friend or the public park space a favor to clear out old underbrush that has littered the ground during the winter months. And, of course, if you want to erect the same structure each spring, you can reuse your branches from year to year.
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Dig. We dig small holes and bury each branch in the ground about a foot deep.
Maneuver. We position each branch so it is the proper angle and height that we’re envisioning for the arbor, walkway, wall, circle, or teepee that we’re designing.
Pack. We pack each down very firmly, to ensure the trellis walls will withstand summer winds and rain.
Wrap. We wrap rows of twine along each side, to form the walls.
Wait. This is by far the hardest step. A month goes by and I feel like nothing is happening. Although I’ve witnessed the miracle of a garden almost every year of my existence, I always doubt that it will truly prosper. So my daughter and I labor, side-by-side, while we wait. Scout stands for hours watching our efforts. We weed and water and transplant. All the while, the bean vine is working too. Week-by-week, one beautiful hairy tendril at a time, the vine starts to inch its way up the trellis, with us barely even noticing. Then, two months into summer, I again rejoice in the miracle.
A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Proverbs 13:4
Here’s a little tour of our garden last month:
Or sit back for 3 minutes and totally relax with these garden and farm snippets in this next video:
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This is such a clever idea. Every kid’s dream come true.
Thank you Tracy. I’ve always been rather thankful that funds have always been very tight for our single-income, six-person family. Frugality leads to the best creativity, don’t you think? And yes, a lush little hideaway growing in the garden is a kid’s dream come true.
This is so lovely.
Do you have deer visiting your garden?
If so, how do you keep them from devouring your garden?
Thank you, Barbara. We actually don’t have much trouble with deer. We are surrounded by forest, with numerous families of deer living nearby, but I guess they have plenty of food without venturing into our garden. We did add a fence around our garden last year, though, because our free-range chicken would destroy our seedlings every spring if we didn’t. I wrote about the few tactics we used to ward off deer pre-garden-fencing in this old post if you’d like to glance at that–> https://soulyrested.com/2014/07/14/heart-shaped-lessons-from-a-white-tailed-visitor/