is an excellent way to make the most of small gardening spaces. Most vine plants, including climbing flowers, peas, beans or members of the squash family can be trained to climb a trellis
. Why not try your hand at making something to add height to your garden?
A basic trellis stands upright and has horizontal slats that the vines use as a ladder to climb upward. The ones you find in garden stores are often fan shaped and may be decorative. If you have basic carpentry skills, you can make one with 2-inch by 2-inch stakes and thinner wood pieces for the slats. Use the stakes to anchor the trellis in the ground near cucumber and squash hills. You can also make the same type of structure with wire.
You can also make a more basic vertical structure from sticks (like bamboo poles or tree pruning). Tie them at the top with twine or wire to create a pyramid shape for peas and beans. Plant seeds at the base of the structure and they will climb as they grow.
Twine on its own is great for climbing plants. Use lengths of twine between stakes to create tiers of twine that peas can climb up. When sticks and twine are used along both sides of a garden row, they can also support non-climbing plants, like tomatoes and peppers. This method is often used in greenhouses.
With a little imagination and some inexpensive materials, you can build a variety of structures for vertical gardening
. Watch the video below for more ideas!How to build simple trellises: