Cattle Panel Arch Trellis

After more reading (several months too late!) about companion planting do’s and don’t’s, I discovered I inadvertently made my tall trellis inhospitable for pole beans this year by the proximity of my extensive rows of garlic, shallots and onions. It's too late to move those alliums now as most were planted last fall. So, I needed to find another place for beans.

Seeing a friend’s new hoop trellis yesterday reminded me I had one cattle panel left over from building a new blackberry support fence recently. I could put that panel (plus at least 1-2 more later) to work for my pole beans this year, and have room for some additional tomato plants, too! In case you are not familiar with cattle panels, they are heavy-duty welded wire sections 16 feet long by 50-1/2” tall.

I had everything needed on hand to start this project and the weather was good for working in the yard. Only the farm stores carry the cattle panels locally; they are closed on Saturday afternoons, so one section is all I could build for now. I put the cattle panel in place over weed cloth and anchored it with tent pegs and rebar driven in the ground on the outside to keep the panel from kicking out.

I used some split cedar posts to contain the dirt and compost because I will not use any treated (toxic) lumber near anything grown as food.

I can almost "see" the trellis covered in vines, and me sitting in a comfy chair inside the arch, iced tea in hand... watching the creek roll by!