Vertical Gardening - Cheap & Pretty Trellising

Man, it's a jungle out there! Our plants have taken off. Unfortunately - some of them - not off the ground.

 

And this causes problems for some of them since they are viny (cantaloupe, cucumber, pumpkin), who need to be lifted higher and higher to produce good fruit. Obviously our growing space is also limited on our 8,000 square feet lot and so vertical gardening is simply a necessity in order to be most efficient.

 

LA Green Grounds activist and master gardener, Florence Nishida (http://www.lagreengrounds.org/), had shown me the kind of trellising system she has been using at Los Angeles' National History Museum and not only were they pretty stylish, they were also completely doable and inexpensive.   And I am off to the next Do It Centre!

 

To make three trellises, I got:

• 5 electric conduit EMT 1/2 inch 10 feet
• 6 rebars 4 feet long 1/2 inch
• 6 conduit connector 1/2 inch elbows
• a roll of nylon thread
• a 100 pack of cable binders

Here is what I did:

I cut the EMT's each at 5 feet, using a hacksaw.

Then I drove the rebars into the ground and put the conduits around it.

 

With two conduit posts in the ground, I used the connectors to connect the posts with the third conduit across.

 

Then with 8 inches apart I tied cable binders on each of the three conduits.

 

Finally, I wove the nylon thread around, creating a net.

 

And I am done! Now, grow you peas!

 

 

"Nature never says one thing and wisdom another." Decimus Junius Juvenalis