How to Make an Easy Garden Trellis

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Looking to make an easy garden trellis? Here’s how!

Now that we’ve lived in our new home for almost a year, we’re familiar with the yard and the sun so now it’s time to start planting! I found the perfect place for a raised bed. Now I just needed a garden trellis for my peas. I wanted something that would last more than one year but was also easy to build.

The Garden Trellis – My Inspiration

Climbing vegetables like peas and beans require some sort of trellis. There are so many ways to make a garden trellis – I’m going to share with you what we chose to do.

I wanted a trellis that would be semi-permanent. I plan on planting peas every year and in the same spot at the back of our garden bed. Since I was planning on planting them in a row (this helps me maximize my space as the garden bed is only 4 feet by 4 feet), I needed something that would go across.

When looking on the internet, there are so many possibilities. This is what works for us. I like that it is semi-permanent – I don’t need to reconstruct it every year. I will need to replace the twine every year, however. I can also leave it in the ground as it doesn’t get in the way.

My inspiration came from Garden Gate Magazine.

It was simple but would last for a few years. I didn’t want something I would have to build from scratch every year.

Supplies for an Easy Garden Trellis

We were able to get most of the above at our local Home Depot. The twine is from my local Dollar Store.

How to Make an Easy Garden Trellis

First, cut off one foot from each post. This will result in 2 pieces – a one-foot piece and a 7-foot piece. At the Home Depot, I go to, they will do 3 free cuts for you, so I was able to get this done by them.

Screw the one-foot piece on top of the 7-foot piece to make a T. We used decking screws so that they won’t rust. We used only 1 screw each and it seems fine. It’s not like anyone is going to spin it. We pre-drilled holes first.

Next, add the eye hooks at the top of the “T”. We found it easier to pre-drill the holes first before adding in the eye hooks.

Bury each post anywhere from 12-24 inches deep. You want to bury it as deep as possible to make it more stable. We were only able to bury 12 inches deep so we cut another foot off of the length as it was interfering with some nearby shrubs.

Make sure it is in line with your plants if you have already planted like we did.

Now I marked where the bottom eye hook would go. Since it was a raised bed and the plants can be a few inches high – it’s not as low as you might think it would be.

Now run your twine across, horizontally, securing them around the eye hooks. You could also use gauge wire (like with the espaliered tree), but I did not want it there year round so I just used twine.

Be sure to make it loose. You don’t need or want it to be taut. Let it dip a bit. It’s okay. Leave some extra twine before cutting so that you can adjust if necessary.

Now, believe it or not, running the twine up and down was the hardest part! Yes, I know – despite that this is an easy trellis. At first, I thought I’d be clever and just wind it all in one go. Bad move. It got super tight and bunchy. I had to take it all off. Learn from my mistake!

The main thing is to be careful about making it too tight. This will result in pulling the trellis inward and pulling the bottom twine up while the top twine gets pulled down.

The best way to wind the twine is to do individual “v’s”. You want to make it quite saggy! To ensure that the bottom string doesn’t get pulled up, my twine actually sits way below it. This is okay! This also helps if your bottom line is too high. I could’ve made the bottom horizontal twine lower but wanted to work with what was already done.

Be sure to use lots of twine – leave a couple of extra inches after you tie each “v”. This way you can make any necessary adjustments. Make sure you have lots of “v’s” as well. You want to make sure each plant has something – I don’t mean one per plant, but you want to make sure something is close by for your plant to grab onto.

The twine part took me the longest and there was a lot of “finessing” involved. If you cut your twine too short, don’t worry – you can always tie and add more on. The first time is always the hardest. Hopefully, I’ll remember for next year!

If you have any plants tall enough already, you can “help” it along by leaning it against the twine so that it will latch on.

There’s the garden trellis all done!

To be honest, I couldn’t believe how long it took me to run that twine up and down. I originally tried to make it “perfect’, but quickly learned that that was futile. I love how it turned out. I can’t wait to watch my peas grow.

Within a few days, my snow peas were able to “grab on” to the twine and secure themselves.

Want to remember how to make this easy garden trellis? Be sure to save this to your favourite Pinterest board.