The one thing I've learned about gardening is that fancy equipment is EXPENSIVE!!! A walk through any store with a garden center fills my mind with wishes for beautiful decorative pots, fancy trellises, and other pretty things for my garden. I know most of that stuff isn't necessary though. Sometimes the most simple setups are best. Growing your own vegetables and fruits is easy and doesn't require costly purchases.

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This year I'm growing some different vine vegetables. I have peas, cucumbers, and green beans. I need some trellises for the vines to grow on. A large trellis can cost anywhere from $40 to $100. I don't want to spend that much money on a trellis. Instead I've decided to make my own with something I have more than enough of...tree branches.

I live out in the woods and am surrounded by trees. We've had plenty of storms that have caused large branches to fall to the ground. We've also cleared some areas with small trees. Tree branches are plentiful. Most of the time they are in the way. I was happy to finally find a use for some of them to clear them from my path up the mountain.

Supplies

• Tree branches
• Screws
• Drill
• Twine

The first step in making a tree branch trellis is to find good quality branches. Walking through the woods I easily found large branches. The big problem was some had been down for too long. They would break extremely easy. Some were covered in bugs who had eaten and destroyed the inside of the branches. I had to find branches that were strong and wouldn't break with a small amount of weight put on them.

The second step is to determine how to put your branches together. I knew I wanted a long and tall trellis. My goal is to lean it against the house and connect the top using twine to the porch to prevent the wind from knocking it down.

You need a few strong branches on the outsides to make a frame. Then, you will use other branches to make rows your vine plants can grow on. If you can't find branches to use for rows, you can make a basic frame with branches, then use twine to make your rows for growing vines on.

The third step is to put the frame together. For my trellis I used both screwed on branches and twine rows. You need a basic frame so you'll need to screw in the branches for the frame. It helps to drill small holes in the branches first. Some branches can break easily once a screw enters them. By screwing small holes in more fragile branches, it helps the screws go in easily with little to no breakage.

The fourth step is to screw in your branch rows. I put two large branches on the left and right of the frame. Then I used a strong, heavy branch at the bottom. I placed the bottom branch high enough that I had around six inches of height above the ground before the first row started. I did this on purpose because I wanted to bury the bottom of the frame in the ground to help stabilize the trellis.

If you decide to use twine to make rows instead of branches, wrap twine around the frame to make rows up the frame. Make sure the twine is tight to support the weight of your vines.

Finished!

This trellis took me around 15 minutes to make once I had all my supplies. Collecting tree branches was the hardest part because it involved a bit of climbing around the mountain.

I moved it into my garden and buried the legs to stabilize the trellis.

I'll tie twine to the top of the trellis and attach it to the porch to ensure my cats or bad wind won't knock it down. The frame is heavy enough I'm sure that won't be a problem but you can never be to careful when you put a lot of work into a garden.

After planting my peas.

The peas are planted at the base of the frame. I put a piece of wood on the ground to mark the pea area from the rest of the garden and to deter my cats from litter-boxing right there. So far they haven't destroyed my garden bed yet. Lets hope my little peas remain untouched.

I love my home made trellis. If I need more rows I can always add them on later. The best part is I didn't have to spend any money. I already had the supplies!

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