String Trellis
One of the things I did last week was put up a string trellis for my peas. I've used them in the past for pole beans and cukes and they work pretty well. They're easy and cheap, too.
First get some 2"x2" boards about 8' long. Mark them every six inches beginning 2 feet from one end and going all the way to the other end.
Put nails in every six inches.
Using a post hole digger, dig a hole about 1'6" to 2' deep and put the pole in the hole. It helps if you have your poles oriented so that all the nails on all the poles are on the same side of the row or bed. I didn't do that this time and it was a pain reaching around some of the posts to put up my string. I usually have about 8' between posts and that seems to work well.
Beginning with the post at one end of the row or bed, tie the string to the bottom nail. Go to the next post and pull the string taut, wrap it around the bottom nail on that post, and go on to the next post. Continue pulling the string taut and wrapping it around the bottom nail on each post. When you get to the end, just take your string up to the next nail, wrap it around, and work your way back down the row or bed.
The finished trellis.
I couldn't reach my top 3 nails. If I need the trellis to be higher than it is, I'll drag a ladder out there and enlist some help in getting string on the top 3 or so nails. The string will sag as it gets wet and dry and as weight is applied to it. I've not had sagging to be a problem but if it is you can simply tie up some new string when the old sags too much.
Labels: garden
posted by Leslie @ 12:05 PM
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Wow! That looks great! I'm jealous that you can use post hole diggers AND dig down 2ft..NO such luck here.
Steph
Hey, thanks for the visual, turtlehead! You suggested this to me on TMEN, and I intend to do it; now I have a better concept (I was envisioning the strings going back and forth on a diagonal like boot laces).
I'm working on a wood planter for container cukes that uses this concept with four trellis posts on each corner. I stopped work on the container for a while as there were more urgent gardening tasks like getting the cool-season early crops going. I just realized that since it will be an 18" by 18" by 18" cube, filled with soil it will weigh a ton! I might end up putting casters on it so it can be easily relocated!
I'll also do a trellis in the ground in the garden. The container is a contingency in case I move.
This is going to look so great later in the season. My grape vine trellis is built on the same principal; we used wire, of course, instead of string and about every two years we tighten the wire.
Very nice setup! I'm in a big garden way too. This year I've decided to plant corn two ways- one the conventional way in a conventional garden; that will be the sweet corn.
The bloody butcher though I plan to plant in our Little Prairie Over the Septic Field - perhaps 50-100 plants, very haphazardly, and see what happens.
Mamamoon, I'm in the process of fencing in the garden (we have deer, rabbits, raccoons, possums...) and I put in wooden posts where the gate will be. I had to stop at two feet because I hit water.
Wannabe, I think a shoelace strategy would work, too. Might even be better, because the sagging wouldn't matter so much.
Leslie, we just planted grape vines last fall and they're beginning to bud out. I'd love to hear more about your grape vine setup. What do you use to hold up the wires? How do you tighten them? Might be a good topic for your blog (hint, hint).
Wayne, how to you plan to plant the haphazard corn? I've heard of broadcasting pasture seed (grasses, clover, etc.) in the late winter so that frost heave "plants" the seeds but I don't know if that would work for corn. I've also heard of making mudballs with corn (and squash and bean) seeds in it and tossing them out.
Are you using cotton string?
Leslie, our Little Prairie over the Septic Field used to be the useless and little-used Grassy Croquet Court over the Septic Field.
(I know that may sound awful, but it's just the drainage area. Lots of nutrients, and water. I can't plow it up with disturbing the underlying ceramic, but I can plant grasses!)
A couple of years ago I pulled out all the grass and began planting sunflowers, milkweeds, grasses, and other natives to make a prairie, because it was a sunny area.
The way I'll plant the corn is, for each seed, I'll churn up a small spot of soil and plant a couple of seeds, and add a bit of fertilizer. I'll do this 50-100 times. I won't mess with the other "prairie" plants. So hopefully the corn (bloody butcher is an heirloom variety) will grow amidst the prairie plants, which may act as valuable companion plants, and produce at least two or three ears each.
It's a kind of non-monoculture experiment. I have no idea if it will work.
You neat gardeners really make the rest of us look sloppy. That said, your string trellis really looks nice...glad sagging is not a problem for you.
Garden report from down here:
Green tomatoes on the vine, giving the squash just one more day and then it's first picking time, spearmint is overflowing and needs cutting. Time to pull up the snow peas and lettuce and plant something else.
Pablo this is plain cotton string. I've also used jute in the past.
FC it will sag, but I've not found that to be a problem. If it ever sags too much I'll just put up fresh string or tighten what I have or figure out something.
I'm not a neat gardener. I avoid photographing the weeds and the discarded manure bags and the rocks as much as I can. My garden is just as bad as anyone's (worse than many, if not most).
Hey thanks for the pics looks really good.
roncarla
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