Building Cattle Panel Garden Trellises

Despite the fact that it’s been so hot and dry here in Central Florida for the month of June (super rare; we should be into our rainy season by now), some of the plants in my garden continue to thrive. So much so, in fact, that it was time to install trellises.

When I created my initial planting plan, I planted like plants across from each other in the narrow beds in the hopes they would be connected by a trellis.

Currently, three of the four connected areas have vining plants that need support, the largest being my Seminole pumpkins.

A friend sent me a picture of the trellises built by From Dream to Seed. We loved them and their narrow footprint, so Rob set out to build something similar.

The Plan

We purchased 16-foot cattle panels at a local farm supply store. Once we got them home, we realized, at 50 inches wide, that they were too big for the beds. Rob figured he could cut them in half to be able to use across all four trellis areas. He used a battery-powered Craftsman side grinder with a DeWalt steel cutting disc to make the cuts. For both panels, the cuts took about twenty minutes.

From there, we used four seven-foot steel fence posts at the corner of each bed. While I held the posts steady, Rob beat them into the ground until they were wedged deep enough to be sturdy. From there, he secured them to the outside of the box with large brackets.

At one point, he had to improvise with the brackets because the brackets he needed were sold out. Poor Rob used an anvil to beat flat brackets into a sort of v-shape to accommodate the shape of the fence post.

With the fence posts installed, we slid the portion of the cattle panel between the post and the bed, completing the trellis by securing the panel to the fence post with a zip tie.

The Result

Most of plants I was easily able to weave through the brackets, except my Seminole pumpkin vine. It had gotten so long that there were a few vine casualties during the weaving process. I’m hoping that because they are such vigorous climbers that they will bounce back and grow even more now with the proper air flow.

All in, the project cost approximately $100 for four trellises. We’ll keep them up year-round, which will dictate where we plant vertical plants.

With those trellises complete, we’ll move on to building a different style trellis for my surprise pole beans (which I thought were bush beans). Stay tuned for that project.

Supply List

• Cattle panel(s)
• Steel fence posts (at least two per bed)
• Large brackets and screws
• Zip ties