I’m doing more and more trellising in my back (and front) yard garden beds to conserve space (for more tomato plants, of course). I use a variety of material for trellises: bed frames (my favorite for peas and beans), these simple trellises, upside down tomato cages, and other simple wooden frames with twine or chicken wire.

A few years ago, I built a squash trellis for a friend, and this year, I have one of my own. The original idea came from this post on DigginFood, and I’ve made just a couple of adjustments.

I added more rungs to the trellis to give the squash a bit more support as they grow, and I added twine to the trellis for small squash tendrils to hang onto--they just can't hold onto the rungs. I have eight squash (butternut, delicata, and pumpkin) planted around this trellis, which really only takes about four square feet of garden space. Without the trellis, I would only have one squash plant (maybe two if I crowded them) in the same space. As the squash grow they will climb up and squash will hang around the trellis and on vines crossing the middle. I’m pretty happy with how it looks now and hope I have a trellis covered in green to show you in August.

Another thing I like about this trellis is that it easily disassembles into the two ladders for easy storage during the winter.

What do you trellis in your garden?
 

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