How to make your own trellis net for flower or vegetable vines

Making a DIY trellis net is a very simple matter of tying strings together in a grid of open squares or rectangles. The dimensions of the squares can be made to suit the type of plant we intend to support. A trellis net for flowering vines, such as morning glories, can look prettier with strings tied every three inches. However, a three-inch square grid may not have spaces large enough to allow for the harvest of peas or beans. With vegetable crop vines, we want to be able to reach through the net to pick up the peas that grow on the other side of the net. A good grid size for peas or beans is four inches. The more spaced the knots are in the grid, the faster it will be to make the net.

To start with, we need some kind of frame to hold the horizontal strings taut while we tie the vertical strings. If chairs with a tall, straight back are available, we can place two chairs side by side and use the backs of these chairs as a frame. However, since not everyone has this type of chair, this article will go on to show how to use a door as a frame, since almost every home has doors.

The items we need to make the trellis net are: cotton twine (nylon and jute twine tend to be too slippery to hold knots), masking tape, and a pair of scissors. To determine the length of our horizontal strings, we can tape the end of a piece of string to the front side of the door near the hinge, wrap it around the back of the door near the hinge, and add a few inches. more for good measure, then cut. Having determined the correct length, we can cut the rest of the horizontal strings. The amount of horizontal strings we cut depends on how wide we want the finished net to be and how big of a grid pattern we have planned. A gate can potentially accommodate the fabrication of a six foot wide trellis net, if we run horizontal strings from almost the top to the bottom of the gate.

Once we determine the size of the net and have cut our horizontal strings, we can tape them around the door. Place a piece of duct tape on one end of a cut piece of string, tape this end of the string through the hinge opening at the back of the door pressing firmly. Then wrap the string around the front of the door, then the back of the door and capture the end of the string under the piece of tape you attached earlier. One by one we can wrap the horizontal ropes in this way according to the space we have planned. To make sure the horizontal strings stay in place, it’s a good idea to place another piece of tape on each string at the outside edge of the door.

The next phase is to tie the vertical ropes. These are spaced according to your chosen grid size and knotted tightly at each crossing horizontal string. When all the strings are tied into the net, the pieces of tape can be removed and the net will fall off the door frame. The net is now ready to hang on a trellis in the garden to display our beautiful flowers or support a crop of vegetable vines.

This trellis should last at least two growing seasons if care is taken to keep it intact when removing wilted vine plants.