I made a trellis system for my tomatoes! It only cost me $35! The trellis works for 27 plants! Also, it is reusable!

This whole project took me 2 hours to make the 3 trellises and to string and clip my tomato plants.

Want to make it for yourself?

What you need

• Twine
• Tomato clips
• Lumber

Ok I know the wood “lumber” is vague, but you really can use whatever! I went into home depot and they had a bundle pack of 8′ strips of lumber for $24 and I used that! You could use tree trunks, you could get legit lumber, you could use mix-matched lumber you have around the house.

Also, as a friendly reminder, gardens don’t need to “look cute” like what Pinterest or Instagram shows. You can have mix-matched lumber, you can have a chicken wire fence. Cheap and easy doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy your garden! And if you like investing in your garden space, that is great too.

How to build the trellis

1. When transplanting your tomato plants into the ground, plant them in a straight line with a foot in between them
2. Collect whatever lumber you plan to use, and the necessary tools (a rubber mallet, a ladder, and screws, and a drill) –
   • Pro-tip: if you don’t have these items, see if a friend has them to borrow instead of buying them for just this one job!
3. On one side of the tomato row, use the mallet to drive the wood into the ground on an angle
4. Make a triangle with the legs and screw the pair together (yay stability!)
5. Repeat on the other side of your tomato plants
6. Connect the 2 pairs of legs, with a top beam over the tomato plants. Mine is set to ~6′ high.
7. Screw the top beam into place!
8. Repeat for how many trellises you need

Once the trellis is built, you get to attach your tomato plants:

1. Tie your twine to the base of your tomato plant
2. Wrap the twine around the stalk a couple times until the tomato plant seems secure
3. Tie the twine to the top beam of the trellis
4. Repeat for the other tomato plants!
5. Add clips to the tomato plant, when needed, to attach the tomato plant to the string!

How it works

OK I’m not going to lie. I have never tried this trellis method! I have seen this used a lot for tomato plants and I hate the tomato cages. They take up a lot of room, don’t hold up plants that well, and they cost more money than I want to pay.

Here is a synopsis of what this trellis system accomplishes:

• This allows your tomato plants to grow more vertically! Encouraging more sun to your plant and taking up less horizontal space in the garden
• Allows for wind to blow through your plant! Fresh air is essential to plants well being, so a nice aeration is going to leave your plants happy
• Encourages you to prune your plant more regularly! Pruning your tomato plants help to mitigate disease and encourage more fruit growth.

Overall – if you have tomato plants in need of a trellis, this seems like a pretty awesome way to accomplish making a trellis cheap. If I got tomato cages instead of this trellis, it would have cost me around $150 for all my tomato plants!!!

alternative construction materials

Want to make this trellis even cheaper or with material you have on hand?

• Lumber alternatives:
  • PVC
  • Nail together pieces of pallet wood
  • Use an arbor
  • Old rolling closet clothes rack

• Clip alternatives:
  • Tie the tomato plant with strips of twine or a ribbon

• String alternatives:
  • Put a stick in the ground next to your tomato plant and just use that instead of making the trellis

Remember, gardens are the best place to be scrappy. Connect with the world, use items you already have on hand if you can. No need to spend a bunch of money (unless that is your vibe.)

Next week for Steph’s gardening series 2023 I will show an update of my garden and how everything is going so far!

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