I just invented the best vegetable garden trellis ever! Vertical gardening is the best way to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, squashes and other vines, but where do we begin? Stakes, tomato cages, Florida weave, cattle panel, string trellising…there are many options, and all have pros and cons. This one is the best trellis method I have ever used, and I can’t wait to share it with you!
My Vertical Gardening Trellising Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1gY7BoYBGIFLZ7_GvDMcqll1Sx6PS2jO&si=Ky6lG5kt2CrlSZuC
I use the following products* for trellising plants in my vegetable garden:
1/8-inch Stainless Steel Wire Rope Cable: https://amzn.to/43AXzda
Turnbuckle Tension Wire Rope Kit: https://amzn.to/3HcpvfM
Tomato Hooks & Plant Clips Kit: https://amzn.to/4mCptOE
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True Organic All Purpose Fertilizer [5-4-5] (4lb): https://amzn.to/4mroKji
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Full Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener
0:00 Every Way I’m Growing Vertical
1:53 My New Trellis Design!
4:43 Using A Hybrid Roof Trellis
6:08 How To String Trellis
11:05 Trellising Tips
12:22 Trellising Results Garden Tour!
17:41 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to build a trellis for climbing plants in a vegetable garden, want to learn more about growing fruit trees or the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B
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#gardening #garden #trellis #vegetablegardening #vegetablegarden
what’s growing on gardeners after a decade of trying literally everything I just developed the greatest vegetable garden trellis system ever how did I do this i put that weird engineering brain of mine to use what I came up with is fabulous and I can’t wait to show you all if you’re new to the channel please subscribe hit the bell for notifications and check out my Amazon store and Spreadshop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom apparel and gear believe me when I tell you that I have tried literally every method of trellising and vertical gardening out there i have tried old school methods like stakes and tomato cages i’ve tried new school methods like Florida weave i’ve built trelluses out of welded wire fence and out of cattle panels i was also one of the first YouTube gardeners to heavily promote string trellising your vines and I’ve done this every way from string trellising along overhead steel cables to growing vines up my rain gutters to simulate greenhouse culture all of them have had their pros and cons with string trellising being by far my favorite method overall however this new development is a true gamecher because it takes the best aspects of multiple methods and marries them together last winter I told you all that I was seriously rehabilitating my garden and making a lot of changes i built a series of new extra deep raised garden beds i added fresh weed barrier to half my garden and biggest of all I was building a roof over part of my garden i’ve shared some of the progress updates along the way with mostly positive feedback and a little bit of criticism but between working my full-time job planting out my garden for the spring and this filming and editing schedule that I maintain for this YouTube channel progress has been slow but things are finally to the point where I can share this exciting new milestone and that milestone is the new hybrid roof structure that I built for my garden that is designed to keep my rainsensitive plants like tomatoes peppers and cucits dry this roof structure is 35 feet long by 16 feet wide and I settled on that size for a very specific reason one that is the longest length of 2x4s that they stock at most big box stores 16 ft and also that is the length of the standard piece of cattle panel that they stock at Tractor Supply that is because the true purpose of this hybrid roof structure is to function as both a plant cover and a trellis so here is how the roof system is going to work i purchased a piece of 16 ftx 40 foot 6 mill plastic that I’m going to unroll on top of the cattle panel i will secure the greenhouse plastic in place with 1×4 boards and furring strips so it doesn’t blow off in the wind the roof itself is constructed on a 2.5% slope so during periods of heavy rainfall most of the rain water will shed off however because it will be impossible for me to pull that greenhouse plastic as tightly as you can in a high tunnel there will be inevitably some pockets of water that accumulate here and there and that weight of the water weighing down when you factor in the entire size of the roof it will be significant so the cattle panels themselves will easily support that sag in the greenhouse plastic preventing any significant sagging that would otherwise potentially cause an issue where the plastic could be weighed down and tear off and the cattle panels will also act as an overhead grid that I will be able to clip on or hook on double tomato hooks and string trellis my vines up to the roof the way that I built this roof structure is as follows 4×4 posts are spaced every 8 ft connecting those posts are trusses made out of 16 ft 2x4s then 2×4 cross braces are built perpendicularly every 4 ft for support once the wood supports were constructed I picked up a bunch of 50in x 16 ft cattle panel sections rested the cattle panels up against the wood frame and I manually fed them onto the top of the roof this was surprisingly simple for one person to do i then shifted the cattle panels into a side byside orientation until they were in line with each other spanning the wood braces for support each cattle panel was then secured in place by hammering in some fencing staples which is a very affordable way to secure metal panels to wood the end result is a beautiful roof structure where the cattle panels themselves will function as both a trellis system and support for the greenhouse plastic i am going to install is the roof because my summers are so brutally wet humid and miserable here in the coastal southeast I have made the decision that it is best to have a solid roof above this portion of my garden because your tomatoes your peppers eggplant cucumbers squash and melons they are very susceptible to pests and diseases caused by heavy rainfall however if you have much drier summers than I do and rainfall and humidity doesn’t badly affect your plants you may want to consider a system like this and leave it roofless you can hang the double tomato hooks with the strings down and then string trellis your vines up to the roof and then let them vine out all along the cattle panel and create a dappled light situation above your garden you would basically be building yourself a two-story garden with a beautiful natural vining canopy situation above which effectively doubles the square footage of your garden because now you have two levels that you can grow food on this lower level and now an above level so now that I showed you all my innovative new trellis design I will show you how I’m going to trellis the plants this has always been my intention since day one so I had to temporarily stake my tomato plants until I could finish this roof trellis system as you can see the stakes are performing badly this is why I do not like tomato stakes now it’s time to rescue these poor plants before the vines start breaking if you are curious about any of these trellising products that I am using I will place direct links down to them in the video description for your convenience to accomplish the trellising we are going to use two different pieces of material the first piece of material that we are going to use is one of these double tomato hooks with synthetic twine these are very affordable again I’ll link to these in the video description this is going to hook on top of the cattle panel we are going to drop the twine and then once the twine is lowered to the ground we are going to clip the main stems of the tomato plants onto the twine using these these are called plant clips and this is what will adhere the vines to the twine so the first thing I did was I unspooled a whole bunch of this twine enough that it will be able to reach the ground or the bottom of the raised beds rather and then I’m going to step up on this raised bed and I’m going to hook this into the top of the cattle panel in such a way that it aligns with one of the stems that I want to support so I think I’m actually pretty good right here so that tomato hook right there is hooked onto the cattle panel and then we will follow it down and look at this viny mess that we have to deal with right here see ideally you would do this before it gets completely out of control but unfortunately I’ve just been too busy so I now have to deal with the problem right now when it’s going to be a little bit more difficult so the first thing I have to do is I have to find the main stem that I actually want to tie up so this right here is the main stem I want to support and I’m going to take this twine and I’m going to put it around the main stem and I am going to clip it right underneath one of the leaf nodes so just to show you this from a little bit of a better angle you always want to put the individual clips underneath one of these leaf nodes so here is the main stem right here then we have a leaf node where there is a 90° leaf offshoot we want to clip it right underneath there because we need something for the clip to hook onto so that’s why we always want to pick a node and then you can work your way up this vine you can kind of weave the string in almost like an S pattern around that vine that way it will the vine will wrap around for a little bit more support and then we’ll work our way up to this node right here as well and same thing with this node we will take our double tomato clip right here and we will clip that underneath one of the nodes and that will provide support for that vine now we’re going to do the same thing with this viny mess down here that has kind of spilled itself out of the bed again we’re going to pick up one of the stems we are going to uh I actually installed a new double tomato hook i’m going to wrap the twine around the stem and then I’m going to place it underneath one of the leaf nodes in a place where it will support the weight okay so now that is hooked on down low let’s bring the vine in a little bit more lift up these leaves and we will place another clip somewhere underneath a leaf node and then we will do one more clip up top o look at this brandy boy plant this thing is just loaded with a gigantic amount of beef steak tomatoes and they are all lying on the ground again this has been kind of a miss of a year for me a bit of a transitional year because I spent so much time rebuilding my garden and I am just really behind i know I’m just making excuses but next year I will do better so I strongly urge for all of you out there you do not let your tomatoes get this big before you really start staking them up see sometimes these tomato clips are a little bit of an iterative process so you put them a little bit lower or higher than you want and you’ll just have to do it a couple of times but once you nail it and you get that first one clipped in it all becomes so much easier so wow this is like staking up a fruit tree it’s so big and loaded with fruit all right so we have the bottom of that monster vine clipped in then we’ll take another clip here underneath a leaf node and I’ll tell you what this vine right here is so big it’s going to need additional support it must weigh 10 lbs already it’s like holding a plate at the gym not that I would know anything about that there we go now that is clipped in and off the ground and it is looking fantastic one thing you may encounter when string trellising your tomatoes is you have to leave a little bit of extra slack in the string in order to have something to grab onto and clip the clips to the actual vine so at first there may be a little bit more slack than you want in the individual strings and that’s not a big deal simply string everything up and leave it so there’s a couple inches of additional slack and then you can just stand up and you can either unhook things and you can move them to the exact slats where you want them to go in order to increase the tension or you can just take your hands and you can wrap a little bit of string around the slack pull down really hard on the cattle panel trellis above in order to create a little bit of slack and then when you wrap the string around this bottom hook a little bit you will create more tension in the line let’s give it one more wrap around and I want to do the same thing here see there’s just a little bit more slack than I want in the system right there so let’s pull the double tomato hook down and then pull the plant up you just don’t want to make it so tight that you start breaking the vines you want a nice firm tension but you don’t want a hard tension that’s going to create a lot of rubbing or snap anything and here is the final results of the string trellising remember this whole aisle right here it was tough to walk through but now I have all of these individual strings that are holding up the tomatoes and you will just see how beautiful everything looks you’ll see all the clips on the tomatoes there all the clips on the tomatoes there remember these tomatoes right here were all hanging down into the aisle and now everything is clear same thing as we go around these were all shooting out everywhere but now everything for the most part is neat and tidy now let’s take a walk on the other side of this tomato bed right here remember I couldn’t even walk through here before but now I can pass through with relative ease it’s not too bad at all and remember this big brandy boy tomato this was completely toppled over this was hanging out into the aisle and the steak had fallen over so this took quite a few supports right here but hey everything is a-ok okay now so just remember folks do this early in the tomato’s life and stay on top of it it’ll be a lot easier because once you get the tomato plant started it’s really easy to just add another clip along the main stems every six to 12 inches to keep the supports going so now the supports for my largest tomato bed are done i just have two smaller beds left this one is a determinant tomato bed this will be a lot easier to do since these grow as a bush and not a vine they won’t need quite as many supports it’s getting a little late to do this tonight so I will finish that tomorrow but this bed right here is another indeterminate tomato bed behind these eggplants right here so there’s a lot growing on right here one of the indeterminant tomatoes was so outrageously large I had to stake it up because we’re going to get a little storm tonight and I didn’t want it to blow over and break but these tomatoes in this bed they are absolutely gorgeous and then we will get a handful of the tomatoes on the other side now because this garden right here is so new I’ve never grown in these beds before i was a little bit aggressive with the plant spacing and that’s because I didn’t know how many I could really fit in this area comfortably and now I know in future years I will probably have to be a little bit more generous with the spacing because I think I may have overplanted those tomato beds but hey you live and learn that is one of the fun things about gardening it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing this you always learn new things every year oh and check this out while I was staking everything up look what I found here i found the first cluster of ripe sun sugar fruits for the year oh my goodness look at this may 26th and I have ripe sun sugars sun sugar is one of my absolute favorite of the cherry tomatoes they are like a more disease and crackresistant version of sunold these are better than any grape you will ever eat it’s hard to describe how delicious these are i wait all year for these they are so sweet they are so citrusy even if you think you don’t like tomatoes you will love these and that right there is what I legitimately think just may be the greatest garden trellis ever made not only is it an amazing way to strongly trellis your vines like your tomatoes your cucumbers and your squashes or your peas or anything else that vines and grows up but having a roof overhead that could then support those vines well if you don’t need to cover it like me in a really wet climate you can actually double your garden’s footprint because you can grow on floor one and you can grow on floor two so you can use vertical gardening to your advantage there is just so much potential when it comes to this orientation right here and I’m really happy with the way it turned out and I can’t wait to see how it performs yes I know that this is a little bit more of an advanced build you will have to set some posts and it takes a little bit of effort but I got to tell you I am just so thrilled with the way it looks now that being said that doesn’t mean that you can’t take this idea as inspiration and make your own smaller scale version you don’t have to have all of these posts you don’t have to have everything so tall so you can get creative with the idea and you can incorporate this on a small scale the idea is to really have the overhead cattle panel above and then the strings from the string trellis that go up and hook onto the cattle panel so you can feed the vines up above and I’m sure there is a million different ways that you can make that happen in a much easier and simpler design so everybody I sure hope you found this video helpful and inspiring if you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and please ring that notification bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these if you’re curious about any of the products that I featured in this video I place direct links to all of them down in the video description and for everything else I use in real life in my garden they are all linked in my Amazon storefront in the video description so expand the video description click on the Amazon storefront link and you’ll see everything I use in real life and while you’re down there please consider checking out my spreadshop if you want to support my channel thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video dale are you enjoying what is left of that blueberry frozen yogurt your tongue is so long it looks fake d you’re fitting your entire noser in that container are you enjoying yourself my son none left huh but that won’t stop him from checking again
46 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please LIKE it and share it with family and friends! Thanks for watching 😊 TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 Every Way I'm Growing Vertical
1:53 My New Trellis Design!
4:43 Using A Hybrid Roof Trellis
6:08 How To String Trellis
11:05 Trellising Tips
12:22 Trellising Results Garden Tour!
17:41 Adventures With Dale
I really like this design, it allows you to move a bed if you need to, slightly change position of plants and not have to worry about where the support is for the support lines.
I'll probably have to make some kind of permanent structure to garden outside in Asia. I've seen what the professional tomato growers do there and it's insane, the structures are REALLY complex but they have to be able to deal with 2 – 3 typhoons a year. I think I'd want something similar to this but with the ability to get to the top easily and pull out such as a retractable awning because when a typhoon hits you don't want any coverings in place unless they're SOLID and well attached and can handle a lot of upward force on them as winds blow through the area.
I'm curious… what do you do with all of your produce?
I'm very surprised you didn't turn the 2×4's on the other side to help prevent sagging and warping.
Great video!! Thank you.
lay a 5gal bucket down on the top in the center and then tie it with some wire so it can't move then pull your plastic tight over it then you wont have any pockets of water
Totally jealous of you eating those first beautiful ripe tomatoes!!!
I grew sun sugar last year and, yes, they are delicious but half of mine end up with black where the tomato connects to the plant making it unappealing. Anyone know what might be causing that. I’ve never seen that before. TIA.
Your new garden bed looks absolutely awesome. The cattle panels will also support the shade cloth.
When you get your water hooked up you will have so much extra time. I use the clips on my 🍅 also. When green beans & eggplants or anything else is big enough I plan to string them also. I have 2×4's built onto my raised beds with screws at the top to attach the stringers.
I just got pex water lines trenched out to my garden with the flat green water hose garden in place for automatic scheduled waterings.
I have an issue that the beds dry out quickly. I have to water every other day & when really hot every day. I figured out using a tuna can under the flat hose how much time to give it takes to give 1 inch of water. About 5-6 minutes.
I'm also finding that my beds don't have enough pete moss to hold onto moisture & hopefully compost + fertilizer, so maybe I don't have to water so much.
In late fall I plan to work in the moss before putting to bed for winter. Also think I'll cover with tarps to prevent wash through of nutrients. I also don't know how moss to add to the 3×7' beds.
Any suggestions you have on amount, moisture & loss of nutrients is very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
🐕 Darling Dale's tongue is long & he thoroughly enjoyed the blueberries. Cute with a smuff blue tongue 😝. He's a happy, happy 😊 happy dog.
I still don't understand why your vids aren't pushed to me. I have signed up & have the black bell turned on.
Seems like those plants were recently planted into that bed, if I'm remembering correctly. They grew really quickly!
Thx. VM…..I learned something important today !!! Thanks again.
This is great!!! I might have missed it but did you do a build guide to your cattle panel roof? This is exactly what I need to do for a few areas of my own garden!
I’ve been noticing your trellis in your background in last several videos. Is it easy to pull such large plastic sheets over the cattle panels? Do you catch the rain water run off from your trellis? Great informative video. Thank you as usual. I love that front-teeth action of Mr. Dale. So cute!!
Hi.. How can i address flower drop in my small patio veggie garden in Florida.. Im exactly following ur potting mix, dry fertilizers combo but with miracle gro water soluble fertilizer.. My black beauty eggplant flowers keep falling without producing any fruits.. Do u have suggestions to address this?
Hi! Christy from CT #greenhouse! My husband is building me a garden! I’m gonna implement this string trellis system!! Great idea, just in time!, Woo hoo!
Surprised you put the 2x4s on their weak axis… Might lead to sagging
5:15 low key Flex. Sun's out Guns out.
Yes, it is a brilliant trellis design; I've been doing this for the past 3 years. Letting the plants grow up through the top worked great for my cherry tomatoes. I'm hoping for similar success with my tomatillos this year as they didn't do great on a cattle panel arch last year. I have much smaller beds (3×6) and used metal EMT conduit to put a vertical trellis in the middle with the horizontal (roof) trellis on top. That way I can rotate my beds with tomatoes/cuke on strings or melons on the vertical trellis. It will be much easier for you next year when you can put the strings in place at the same time that you plant the tomatoes/cukes. This will be my first year trying cukes on strings; I was inspired by your earlier video. Dale is SO cute and, obviously, well loved.
it looks like your tomatoes are about a month ahead of mine, which makes sense considering so is your last frost date.. Lookin good this year!
Looks like a great idea. How about the price for a structure like this. I only can afford so much. Thanks.
I'll be curious as to how much sagging those wooden boards on top do over time and load. Love your channel.😃
Hello! Your garden is a candy for the eye! I've been following your channel for several years and watched your garden developing. Pure joy!
Thanks, that’s a great design, I’d love to do that in my garden! I’d probably put extra post supports on the sides of the beds. I think that’s an incredible amount of weight. Hi, to Dale! Dogs are such perfect companions!❤❤
Love your channel and I’m worried that the topmost wood is lying down in the weak direction. That’s why they are sagging. They need to be turned up like a joist.
Do you have an issue with carpenter bees attacking your trellises?
If so what do you do to stop them?
Some of your ideas remind me of some of my own. One day I'll literally be growing trees on top of trees. I'm talking like a 400 gallon pot sitting in the crook of a giant tree, 20 feet up, growing another giant tree. Eventually, my entire forest will be one inosculated city of life.
Put some knee braces on it so it doesn't rack and collapse in wind. Especially with the plastic on top that will create a sail affect. They are put in on 45 deg angles between the horizontal and vertical timbers creating a triangle for support and strength.
I’ve seen some grape trellis’ like this. The plastic addition is new though!
How’d you transport the 16ft panel?
This isn't anything new. People have been building these for decades.
How tall is this roof?
As you are making a fairly permanent place for your tomatoes and other nightshades, are you concerned about planting them in the same place year after year rather than rotating crops?
Thank you for answering my question today!!
"I really admire how much care and dedication goes into growing these vegetables. This kind of sustainable farming is what the world needs more of. Keep up the great work!"
Wonderful invention! Gardening seems a bit of a bad investment sometimes, in that one could spend $10,000 and weeks or months of life for something that can be bought at a farmer's market for $3.
One flaw. Your tomatoes will now grow taller. They will outgrow the “roof”.
What surprises/shocks us most is the proliferation of sucker vines growing on your tomatoes: very low air circulation and very high ratio of foliage to fruit. Really???
It looks nice now that it's new. However, the wood you use will degrade over time, wear out and deteriorate. It would be better to protect it with some material and not let the base go into the ground, better perhaps on a concrete foundation. Friendly!
It looks great, I love it! You gave me ideas for our upcoming green house. Thanks!
Good idea but you should have placed your top 2x6s vertically (narrow side down). You're going to end up with a ton of sag.
I envisioned something like this when I built my last tomato trellis but hadn’t thought about doing it for the entire garden. I’ll definitely follow along to see how this works out for you.
Love it! Looks fabulous. A lot of work I bet!
Do you prune bottom of tomato plants ever
Did Al Gore invent the Internet?
I work in the film industry and we hang our lights from grids very much like the cattle panel is but in 4 * 4 ft sections.
So I designed my trellis /sun shade into this process using half inch conduit space every 4 ft. It works out very nice. It's galvanized and a little easier to work with than the lumber. But I like this idea and could use it for a smaller portion of the garden growing kiwis , cherry tomatoes add pumpkins.
Keep the videos coming bro they are so helpful thank you
I’ve thought of trying a table trellis. Similar concept but only 3’ high. Vines grow up through it then run horizontally. Easy picking when all your fruits are waist high. The Colonial Williamsburg garden has used them, where I first saw it