Homemade Trellises & Arbors

Wooden Frames

• Frames don’t necessitate the purchase of fancy trellises or carefully planed pieces of lumber. Instead, you can use poles made of pruned branches to create a latticework arrangement that will help support vegetables or flowers in your garden, as well as adding a decorative visual element. Use trimmed branch poles between 4 and 10 feet long, laying them crosswise to one another to form a lattice. Then tie the poles to one another or nail them together. Stand a single lattice up against a wall or shed at an angle, or lean two against each other and attach. If you make them tall enough, you can walk beneath them arbor-style.

Teepees and Obelisks

• Teepees and obelisks are among the easiest homemade garden structures, and are always fun to do with children. Use bamboo poles, long stakes, pruned tree branches or other pieces of wood. Take at least three lengths, several feet long each, and stick them in the ground so they lean into one another at the top and away from one another toward the bottom. Use twine, wire or another sturdy material to tie the tops together, looping over and under each pole to make sure it doesn’t fall out. They are perfect for growing twining flowers and veggies that need support.

Portable Trellises

• If you are working with minimal space and want a mobile system you can use again and again, try a portable trellis. It’s fairly simple to construct: You simply attach chicken wire to two homemade or purchased wooden frames, then attach a hinge at the top of both pieces so that they open into an A-frame shape. You can then use them wherever you want in the garden during the growing season, and store them flat during the winter.

Homemade Arbors

• If you can’t afford prefabricated arbors, there are various intermediate levels. You can build them out of pieces of trellis attached to one another with nails to form a top and sides spanning a path, or simply create a teepee large enough to grow vines on. If you spread the poles unevenly so they are grouped on two sides instead of all the way around, you can place one over a path or in the corner to the garden and grow vines on it.