by Justice Mogano, West Chester

Here is my tip for building a backyard trellis. Purchase two pieces of 1/2” thick rebar, about 3’-4’ long. Space them appropriately and hammer them into the ground, leaving about 18” above ground.

Then, slide two pieces of 3/4” diameter conduit over the rebar These will be the uprights. These are 6.5’ tall in this photo.

Next, connect the uprights with a shorter length of conduit using elbow connectors.

Finally, fasten a nylon garden net to the frame using zip ties.

These cucumbers will grow quickly, and produce a lot of weight. The vines will grab hold of the netting. If your trellis is firmly staked in the ground, it will support the weight, prevent the vines from snapping and allow for better exposure to the sun.

This can be assembled in under 30 minutes.

For our other trellis, I used the exact same construction, but made it slightly wider from side to side. In the past, we used wooden two by fours to suspend our tomato plants. But the tomatoes are much too heavy and they completely warped the wood. Now we use the trellises for squash and cucumbers, but for tomatoes, we use the ordinary tomato cages you can buy at the hardware store.