This evening after work I through together a quick trellis for our pea plants and green bean plants that have started to outgrow my impromptu driveway stakes.
This trellis is simply made with some pressure treated 2×2’s that are 8’-0” long and a couple pieces of 1×6 cut to length with angles. I had a rough idea that I was going to make an A-frame with a couple of the 2x’s spanning between the frame. With only a couple of hours of daylight, and two anxious helpers, under 4, I knew I needed to act fast.
The first step was to build the two A-frames. The first thing I did was measure the width of my row of plants and found it to me approximately 24” wide. This dimension would be the widest point between the base of the two legs. from here I stood the 8’ 2x’s up right and guesstimated that I would want them to be 6’-0” tall. This would leave me a 2’ scrap that could be used at the base of the frame if needed. I cut the the sides of the A-frame to length (6’-0”) and laid them on the ground and laid them out in the “A” shape, making sure the top touched and the bottom was 24” apart. From there I laid the 2×6 across the sides and marked the angle to cut. In this case it turned out to be somewhere in between 7 & 8 degrees. I also measure the distance between the two sides at 8” off the base of the legs. This would give me the longest length of the stretcher.
After setting my saw to the approximate angle, I made a few quick cuts and screwed the bottom stretcher to the legs. With the legs attached I adjusted the legs at the top of the a-frame and took some measurements for the top stretcher. The angles are the same, and I set the top of the stretcher to a point where the distance between the two legs is 1-1/2” wide so the rail would sit securely between the legs and the top stretcher.
Everything is screwed together with some deck screws and is easily lifted by two people into place because its lightweight. The overall length of the trellis is 8’-0” and we simply wound twine between the three rails spanning between the A-frames.
I found this design to be less sturdy than I would have expected, but with a few simple diagonal corner braces I could stiffen it up. Here we were going for speed and a lightweight frame, after all we are not really supporting anything real weight. It also makes a good road block for keeping the little ones out of your garden bed.
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