Elegant wood
trellises make an attractive feature of your
garden.
Wood trellises
are a very old fashioned idea, but this is what gives
them their charm. A wood trellis makes a very
decorative garden landscaping feature in itself, and
it also allows you to display beautiful climbing and
flowering plants where they can be seen from all over
the garden. The trellis may be freestanding, or part
of a garden arbor, or it may be placed against a wall.
If you have a large, dull blank wall space in the
garden, placing an elegant wooden trellis against it
will turn the space into a magnificent vertical
garden.
Building your own
wooden trellis from scratch.
Designing and building a simple wooden trellis is
about the easiest DIY project there is, so it’s a
great idea even for an absolute beginner. You’ll need
some small, flat pieces of timber or plywood to make
the lattice, and two larger pieces of wood for the
support posts. You’ll find trellis patterns and plans
online which are very handy to use as a guide, but if
you have a good enough head for geometry, it’s not too
difficult to work it out as you go.
Place the small pieces of wood in a crisscross
pattern between the support posts, fix them in place
with glue, then nail the whole trellis together
securely. The trellis support posts should extend
around one foot below the lattice structure, depending
on the size of the trellis.
Setting the trellis up is a simple matter of
digging two holes for the support posts, planting the
trellis, then planting your shrub or flowering plant
next to it. Some plants are very good at grasping onto
the rungs of trellises and will tend to take care of
themselves, while others will need to be secured onto
the lattice using some nylon thread or strips of
pantyhose.
Learn more about vines that are great for arbors
and trellises in this article on:
The Magic of Annual
Vines.
