If you want to know how I made this great budget-friendly garden trellis, follow along with this post!
This year was my first year planting a garden all on my own. So, I have been searching for great garden trellis ideas. Of course, growing up, I helped out with my parents’ garden. As I got older, I got more into plants and taking Botany my Senior year of high school pushed me further for my love of plants. My dad allowed me to take over planting all the plants but he was still there to help me. My dad is the type of dad who would show me how to do it and then I would start to do it, and he would end up finishing the job anyways. Which in this case, he would make strong suggestions. Most of the plants we had bought from the high school greenhouse, but some of them I bought seeds.
Now being a high school senior, I didn’t have much money. So, I picked up a $1 seed packet of iceberg lettuce. Not saying them being cheap was the issue, but I had no experience growing lettuce. I was determined that I was going to get the lettuce to grow. I made my mound, planted the seeds, and watered frequently. The lettuce was growing and I thought it was time to harvest. My dad told me that he didn’t think that was lettuce. I harvested anyways. I brought it in, washed and took a bite. Turns out my dad was right and it was just a strong growing, lettuce-looking pesty weed. My little sister gave me the nickname “weed-eater” and I have never been able to live that down. My now husband has even cracked a joke about it recently.
I am nervous to fail
So needless to say, I am a little nervous about failing this summer. I have started my plants from seeds myself well besides my tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. But I can learn a lot to do better for next year! This trellis is a new idea for me. One vegetable I knew for sure I wanted to plant was Sugar Snap Peas! I LOVE them. And I haven’t had any fresh ones for a few years. I knew I needed a garden trellis for them to grow upon. I was going to do something similar to what my dad has done in the past, but it wasn’t the cheapest idea. By no means is it expensive either, but I like to save as much money as possible.
At first, I built something similar to what I had built for my honeysuckle upfront. But this had to be horizontal for the length of the row of peas. At this point, I was just winging it. And let me tell ya, it did not work out at all. It may have if the trellis was way more sturdy, and if I went back to the store to get more wood. This represents how my plans seem to go a lot of the time. I have this great idea in my head, I think it is going to be a piece of cake, but then it ends up something similar to this. Not all the time, but my plans can go sideways, and to me that okay. I just try again and learn from my mistakes for next time. I am alright with doing the project over!
Back to the drawing board
Back to the drawing board. At this point, I was feeling discouraged, but I didn’t want to give up. I searched and searched for ideas on Pinterest, but I didn’t find anything. I found bamboo stick ideas, but that was going to take a lot to do one row of peas and I was looking for a more wallet-friendly trellis. On Amazon, I think I just ended up searching “Garden Trellis” and something I never even thought of popped up! I remembered to take a picture and I will link it at the bottom!
This is 3o feet of trellis netting so plenty big enough for my 15ft wide garden! My garden may be a little smaller or the net was a little bigger than 30 feet because I had a little bit leftover from the two rows I made. Not only did I end up needing trellis for my sugar snap peas, but I realized I had purchased pole beans instead of bush beans. So, I decided to go with them. I am not sure if this net will be strong enough for the beans, but I am giving it a go. Hopefully, it will be strong enough for the peas in general and only half of the row decided to grow. This is a learning experience and I will be sure to make an update as both the peas and the beans start to vine up the netting.
Making this easy garden trellis idea
To make this easy trellis idea, I used 1X2s and just hammered them into the ground. I bought them as 1X2X8s and cut them down to about 4 feet tall. I had cut them down to this size for the first trellis idea I had. If I just went back and got more, I would have rather only cut them down to 5 feet or 6 feet. The netting is 5 feet tall, so do keep that in mind.
There is a little extra netting on the ground, but I would prefer it that way so there is some net you can use to anchor it into the ground. I just used leftover ground stakes we had from a landscape edging we took out along one of the flowerbeds. Tent stakes would work, I found these metal stakes and these garden staples online that would probably work if you don’t have any extra tent stakes to spare. Both options are wallet-friendly.
I then attached the netting to each of the 1X2s with a staple gun, a pretty easy task to do yourself, as long as you can hold the staple gun with one hand. In the first trellis I put up, I put both of the 1X2s in the ground first and then went back in and attached the netting. The 2nd one, I put one of the 1X2s in attached the netting and then put the other 1X2 on the other side, brought the net over, and attached it.
Either way, you get pretty much the same outcome, but my rows are not the straightest, so I wanted to work the netting around the beans. Something I learned from doing the first one. On the other hand, the pulling the net straight across like I did the first time, the net is all lined up and looks better in my opinion. That’s why I think my 2nd, front, trellis looks a little wonkier to me. I just tried to pull it as tight as I could so it would be stronger and more sturdy for wind and the vegetables.
In all, between the netting and the 1X2X8s, the cost for me was about $20 for two trellises. I already had the staple gun and staples, and the ground stakes. The cost of the 1x2s also depends on what length you want them to be. The cheapest would be 4 feet tall so you can get two out of one 8 footers.
For this Cheap and Easy Trellis Netting, you will need
- At least (2) 1X2X8s for 4 feet tall pieces *See edit below*
- Staple Gun
- Staples
- Hammer
- Saw
- Trellis Netting
****The width of your garden determines the amount of netting and support 1X2s you will need!
Everything that I have linked, is what I used for this project. This is not an affiliated or sponsored post.
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July 11, 2021 Update!
Hi Chickadees just a little update on this Garden Trellis idea! I am learning as the garden is growing! I originally made this netting trellis for my sugar snap peas. But when I went to plant my green beans, I realized I had purchased pole beans instead of bush beans. So I knew I needed to make a trellis for the pole beans as well. The netting and just (2) 1X2s worked out great for my sugar snap peas. Just a few days ago I realized that my trellis with my pole beans was starting to lean over. So I just took some zip ties and leftover bamboo sticks from another project and zip-tied them to the netting.
Now it’s standing straight up and the netting is tight. A simple, easy and cheap way to add more sturdiness to your trellis! I do want to say that I would suggest just adding more 1x2s when you first build this just in case. And I will be doing this for next year. But I had used these 1X2s for a different trellis design so I just wanted to use what I had on hand. You also need to keep in mind the width of your garden! The wider it is the more netting you will use and the more support 1x2s you will need!