How to Make a Simple Garden Trellis
Garden trellises add visual appeal to any garden and help create more room for other plants. Making a simple garden trellis is easy with a few branches from a tree. Using dry wood, you can create an unique garden trellis for your climbing plants to grow on.
Items Needed
- measuring tape
- hand saw
- three straight tree branches, 1 inch diameter, 3 feet long
- one straight tree branch, 1 inch diameter, 6 feet long
- two straight tree branches, 1 inch diameter, 5 feet long
- two branches, 25 inches long
- two branches, 22-1/2 inches long
- two branches, 32-1/2 inches long
- small nails
- hammer
- Measure out all the branches you will need before cutting them. This will prevent you from ending up with branches that are too short to use.
- Cut the branches you measured. Lay them on the ground in groups according to their length.
- Lay the cross pieces that are 3 feet long, horizontally on the ground. Place two of them 18 inches apart with the the top one 16 inches above the center cross piece.
- Place the 6-foot long branch on top of the cross pieces. Center this down the middle of the cross beams. The bottom of the center vertical post should extend past the bottom cross piece by 4-1/2 inches.
- Nail the center vertical post to the three cross pieces. Drive the nails into the center of each joint.
- Lay the 5-foot long branches near the ends of your cross beams. These will form your outside vertical posts. Place them 3-1/2 inches in from the end of your cross beams. Nail the vertical posts to the cross beams driving the nails into the center of each joint.
- Lay the 22-1/2 inch branches diagonally inside the bottom of your trellis. These should start at the outer bottom corner of the bottom cross beam and slant upward to the center corner of the middle cross beam. Nail these into both cross pieces.
- Place the 25 inch branches diagonally inside the top of your trellis. These should start at the outer bottom corner of the middle cross beam and slant upward to the center corner of the top cross beam. Nail these into both cross pieces.
- Lay the 32-1/2 inch branches at the top of your trellis. This will form the top. Place these branches so the bottoms overlap the top joints at the outside vertical posts. The top of these branches will overlap and join each other at the top of the center vertical post. Nail these pieces into the vertical posts at the joints. When done, the top will look like an upside down "V".
- Make sure all joints are secure. Hang your trellis.