Sturdy Garden Trellis

I got nothing. My blog is dusty from neglect, and I got nothing.

I need to dehydrate and can some sweet potatoes, but that doesn't seem photographically interesting. I just made tons of applesauce, and some apple butter and cinnamon apple wedges, but I talked about that last year. So I'm digging up some old pics from June that I didn't use.

Last year, I built string trellises, which I'd used before for cukes and green beans, but I found they weren't strong enough for heavier plants, such as peas. I'd made a trellis for my tomatoes using livestock panels and I was happy with it, so this year I used livestock panels for my peas, too. It's hard for a short person to put a trellis in the center of a four foot wide bed. This is how I do it.


My tools. I use T-posts to hold up the livestock panel, and I use the post pounder thingy to get them into the earth.


I set up a sawhorse on either side of the bed, and put a couple of 2x4 boards across the sawhorses. I stand on the 2x4s and pound the T-posts into place. My husband laughs at me when I do this because... well, I don't know why, but he laughs. Like he laughs when I climb up onto the kitchen counter top so I can reach whatever is on the top shelf in the cabinets.

Measure the length of your cattle panel and put the T-posts closer together than the length of the panel. Four feet or more closer, so that a couple of feet (or more) sticks out past the T-post at each end.


Get someone to help you hang the panel on the T-posts. It is REALLY hard for me to lift the panel into place while leaning over the bed, but with help I can get it in place. I use the little metal thingies that are used for attaching welded wire fencing to T-posts. I could use any kind of wire, but the feed store gave me some of these thingies when I got the T-posts so I use them.

I don't put the panel on the ground, I elevate it somewhat. This gives my trellis another foot or so of extra height, and *maybe* it will allow me to lightly cultivate beneath the panels in the Spring, which will save me having to take down the panels and put them back up. I'm all about saving work.

I'd be happy to let the livestock panel trellises become a permanent garden fixture. If I rotate broccoli or potatoes into the bed, they won't mind the trellis being there, and it will be ready for me the next year when I rotate peas, tomatoes, or cukes in.

We'll see how the cultivation effort goes in the spring with a couple of these things in place. On the one hand, I use no-till methods, but on the other hand, I do like some space to swing my hoe or cultivator.