Learn how to make a homemade garden trellis that is easy to build and moveable. It’s the perfect way to do proper crop rotation in your raised beds and/or garden. Bonus: it’s easy to pack up and store for the winter as well!
I have made MANY homemade garden trellises over the years. I like to give myself the challenge of making a homemade garden trellis that is affordable AND functional, which can be difficult.
The most frugal (and prettiest) DIY garden trellis I have ever made used thick sticks from my forest. You can learn more about how to make that budget-friendly trellis in this article.
I also made a homemade garden trellis with chain link fence that had been left on the property when the last owners left. It’s not very pretty, but hey, it was FREE, and that’s what really matters.
The only issue with all the other DIY garden trellises that I have made is that they were allpermanent structures. I mean, sure, I could technically pry the rebar out of the ground and undo all the ties and stuff in order to move the trellis, but that’s a lot of work.
Here in lovely South Carolina, we have clay “soil” so the only good way to garden is with raised beds. Combining my raised bed gardening with my crop rotation guide means that my plants move around every year. But the garden trellises that I already made remain in the same place. I needed a new garden trellis that could move around.
My New Homemade Garden Trellis Needed…
I realized this past winter that I needed a new homemade garden trellis that combined these ideas:
- My new garden trellis needed to be moveable. I wanted a garden trellis that I could move around with the crop rotation plans, instead of having limited options for where to put my trellis vegetables (peas, pole beans, cucumbers, etc.).
- The garden trellis needed to be weather proof. My hot and sunny South Carolina summers means that I needed a garden trellis material that could endure the heat without deteriorating quickly.
- My garden trellis idea needed to be easy to pack up and store in the winter. I didn’t like the idea of dismantling garden trellises every fall season.
- The garden trellis needed to be inexpensive. I’m a stickler for a strict garden budget and I had no interest in spending my entire yearly budget on a garden trellis.
- My homemade garden trellis needed to be easy to make. I wanted to make a garden trellis in less than a day, since I’ve got plenty of other gardening chores to do that are more interesting or important.
I spent plenty of time online looking at all sorts of garden trellises for inspiration and then I figured out the most simple and easy and moveable trellis idea ever.
Making This Easy Homemade Garden Trellis:
Here’s what you need for this homemade garden trellis:
- Cattle Panels
- Wire or Twine
- Garden Stakes
We have avoided cattle panels in the past because we only have a average-sized SUV and no trailer, and most cattle panels are 16 feet long and will not fit in that type of vehicle. However, the local farm store had just started selling 8 foot long cattle panels, so we headed over as soon as we could.
SIDE NOTE: By the way, I found out while chatting with a worker at the store that they actually have wire clippers on hand for customers to cut their own cattle panels (you have to cut it yourself after paying), so it turns out we could have bought cattle panels a long time ago. So if you only find 16 foot cattle panels at your local farm store, make sure you ask them if they have clippers for you to use if you also can only fit 8 foot panels in your vehicle!
We bought 4 cattle panels in order to make 2 garden trellises, and gently folded them in half to fit inside our SUV. Each 8 foot long cattle panel cost $16.00, so one garden trellis cost us just over $30.00. Not too bad for our garden budget!
When we got home, we immediately uncurled the cattle panels and straightened them out by stepping on them and folding them the opposite way. Once they were straightened out, we put together our homemade garden trellises.
Making these garden trellises took less than 10 minutes! I was surprised just how easy it was to put them together.
Here’s how to make this homemade garden trellis:
- I held up two cattle panels in an A-frame shape inside my raised garden bed.
- My husband clipped pieces of wire and wrapped/twisted the wire along the top in order to tie the two cattle panels together. He wrapped/twisted the wire every 4-6 inches and made it extra thick on the two edges. You can also use twine if you want a more charming look.
- We staked the bottom of the cattle panels every 6 inches into the garden soil to prevent the trellis from moving if we ever get a strong wind.
That’s it! It was super easy to make this homemade garden trellis and I’m so glad we could make two of them for less than $100.00 total and in less than 10 minutes (excluding driving to town for them).
I’m looking forward to doing some lovely vertical garden planting with this homemade garden trellis this season! I’m also hoping to plantunder the garden trellis, probably plants that don’t like the summer sun too much, like lettuce or maybe even my favorite, arugula. It will be fun experimenting with growing under the trellis this upcoming season as well!
Do you make various homemade garden trellises for your garden?
Tell me about your DIY garden trellis projects in the comments below!
More gardening articles:
- How to Start Seeds Inside
- Best Edible Flowers for a Vegetable Garden
- Early Spring Gardening Chores
- How to Deal With Problems Growing Root Vegetables
- Rustic DIY Garden Trellis (on a budget!)
