How to Make a FREE Garden Trellis from Sticks 

As a broke person with very few gardening supplies I am eternally grateful! 😁

That was some impressive machete whackin'! Thank you for bringing gardening back down to earth by teaching us how to grow food for almost free.

As a nation we seriously need to learn how to adapt to our environment. We no longer think outside the box. We all have to work on our problem solving skills. Thanks for the ideas!!!

As a broke bloke who takes too many tokes, I approve of this message…😂. On a more serious note, I just hammer in individual posts, often hand cut saplings and string twine down the lines, and I haven’t had one fail yet…. I like your shire tepees👌

I saw this video, and promptly went out in the garden and made one. Thanks David.

I've built thousands of those here are some extra tips. They work much better with 4 legs. And also you have to put then in the right order forming something like a spiral when you tie them up. Bamboo is the best material for it but anything will work. Water the soil beforehand so it will be real easy to stick them in the ground.

Timely video, David! Nice to be reminded that rustic can be beautiful and functional. You are always anticipating similar ideas we have for our homestead. Namely--we are tired of dropping cash on poles and the endless infrastructure homesteading can require. We are building a temporay goat house medieval style all from larger saplings we cut by hand. Our ancestors didn't have big box stores and they did OK.

I love the natural trellis.😊 That would make a garden look more whimsical, fanciful, and from another time and it still gets a job done the same way😊

This has really been helpful for me. I can't afford any more cattle panels.

This video is right up my alley! I'd love to see more about gardening with little or no money.

I love the rustic look and it blends in with the garden. Nothing wrong with using what you got. Thank you so much!

Hello the Nana's here from Central Florida Zone 9B I'd like to challenge your subscribers and viewers to share their most frugally creative trellising ideas. Our neighbor was getting ready to throw their above ground swimming pool ladder away but I took it away from the garbage to use for our squash plant because we don't have room for it to grow in our yard. It made a nice trellis when we added some bamboo that grows in our yard along with a few zip ties here and there. All the stakes used in our yard are made from bamboo. Happy trellising.

David has an excellent assistant. Good job, y’all!

Well done! I enjoyed seeing your trellis making us jealous, but free is ever so much better! God bless you.

I like your very precise measurements

Using a tripod lashing to assemble the tepee frame might be easier than tying it up in situ. I once used bamboo to lash up tomato trellis; I didn't have any overall plan, just a bunch of tomatoes to support and bamboo to do it with. Wound up looking like a Vietcong Ewok village... with tomatoes.

Home improvement and gardening centers have turned simple gardening into an expensive endeavor. I've used saplings lashed with heat-shrinkable plastic strips cut from 2-liter cola bottles and dig my compost from the woods behind the house. It all works just as well as expensive store-bought stuff.

So weird David. 1. Literally built the same trellis today with bamboo… today 😮 2. Been adopting some of the Foundations for Farming (Farmint Gods Way) this past year!!

Absolutely love it David free scavenging materials works for me Thanks for sharing hope you have a blessed day 🙏 🇺🇸 😊

It was so nice to meet you and listen to your presentation at Keepers of the Old Ways! Thank you for your time!

Loved this!!! Please make more like it. 🤗

Machete gardening is the way of the future with you are the forefront

Thank you so much for sharing this. Our very first garden was full of simple garden trellises like these! We grew plenty of green beans on them. Sometimes simple is best and surely much less expensive.

I make these for my tomatoes but with shorter sticks tied around them horizontally to brace them and without the long sticks on top. I pick up branches people put out on the side of the road and use those if I don't have any. Works great!

The biggest thunderstorm comes when the beans are loaded.... I have never gone through a whole season without standing this kind back up at least once.

I LIKE IT!!! I’m very in to repurposing especially for the garden. My “neighbor hood watch” isn’t fond of my trellises. But when my garden is in full swing I get the neighbor of the year award .

Once again, thank you David.

The scraps and materials I get from working construction are top notch for my homesteading 💪

Awesome AND my 77 yo self could do it! Floppy tomatoes, here I come!

I'm a huge fan of dumpster diving. People tear out chain link fence, old box spring mattresses, sofas, busted up beds with rails, old futons.. all the time. There is so much to be had in the way of wood, metal, springs, and other usable items at your local dump.

Thanks David. Sometimes simple is better.

If you are really hard up for twine, you can cut some from a plastic soda bottle. After you bind your tripod together, a candle flames worth of heat will cause it to shrink up and tighten.

Love how you make nature work in your garden.

Thank you David. You are inspirational and encouraging. Your energy still appears to be going strong 💪 .

LOVE the term "shire" teepees. I bought a house that has a tree at the back of the property with a bunch of lims that were cut and just tossed at the base... I think I might need to salvage these and make some shire teepees!

You had me at “what if you didn’t have any money” 😆

Your helper is lovely! I just pruned crepe myrtles and saved a lot of trunks and branches to make a grape arbor!

Oh, I like that! Rustic Charm is so pleasing to the eye!

Great timing - on a non existent budget in high dessert, building/living in a tiny house and trying to self-sustain and create a tiny food forest... just got a bee hive, soon bee's, got chickens and ducks.. and need to try to grow a load of pea's as the ducks eat us out of them fast ;) But the only cattle panel I have is a half width and I wanted to try it for the static chicken tractor/composting this year.... so I'd been preparing to dig holes to put tree branches in - didn't even think of a teepee - I may need to tether them to the ground due to the winds here, but still.... much easier than digging a hole in compacted clay ;) thank you :)

Bad Buds Some plants hinder other plants' growth and shouldn't be grown next to one another. Here are some bad friends: Beans: onions, garlic Cabbage: strawberries, tomatoes Caraway: dill Carrots: dill Corn: tomatoes Cucumbers: potatoes, sage Hyssop: radishes Onions: beans, peas Peas: onions, garlic, leeks Peppers: kohlrabi Potatoes: pumpkins, squash, tomatoes Radishes: cabbage Rue: sweet basil Squash: potatoes Tomatoes: cabbage, cauliflower, fennel, potatoes Turnips: potatoes

Convenient having a forest in your backyard. Cheers

My husband and I live on a wooded hill with mainly oaks. We have a lot of garden beds that need trellises, so we just scavenge fallen limbs and make triangular supports for our squash and beans. We use tarred twine, so that the trellises last more than a season. I find if I use jute, it doesn't hold up in the sun. The rustic look is nice, though with the quantity or trellises we have, our property looks more like we're defending against a cavalry charge in the revolutionary era, than a peaceful Hobbiton scene :)

Brilliant! My wallet is going to thank me ❤

Repurpose & reuse are part of my gardening design! Love the natural rustic look.

Yeah, it was the machete that made me jealous...gotta go sharpen mine. Thanks for a beautiful and eco in all senses trellis idea.

LOL...."The Trellis to make ya jealous", yes, the homemade trellis has a rustic appeal, actually harmonizing with Mother Nature but just one thing if ya'll are gonna plant corn, planting the beans at the base of the corn will provide a trellis for the bean vines while at the same time the beans infuse the soil with nitrogen, something the corn needs to fully develop to its flavorful potential.:)

I have learned over the many years to be innovative, SO it cones natural NOW, I been build my new garden fence out of pallets, and placing the rabbit cages around the fence also.

Mother nature provides it all, and David really is the good demonstrating how it's done. Thx

This is just the trellis I need to make . I need about 10 of these for overgrown Black raspberries ! I agree they look much better than any machine made one ! Thank you

I enjoy reading your books and videos! Glad I found you on here last year.

I have a stash of saplings, wild grapevine and trimmings for projects like this ...After planting a small area last year, my three dogs couldn't resist digging. Not wanting to spend cash on fencing, I made a waddle fence, flowering vines are starting to grow through it now. It's charming! Planning to make some dewberry trellises this year and waddle fencing to protect more garden space from my furry helpers...The trellis with teepees looks great for beans or my wild dewberries, thanks for the demo!

I actually used sticks about 6 years ago when i first started trying to grow peas 👍 this is a good tip for anyone who wants to get the job done without spending money. It worked for ME..!

I'm going to try this on our new grocery row garden with the (dethorned) black locust we're pollarding in a few weeks.

We were literally just talking about this today. Good timing!

I love this! Gonna have me some rustic trellis this year and just drool over your epic trellis. lol 😆 🤣 thanks, and God bless!!

Love your style and fast improvisation hability Dave

Excellent, love that trellis.

Love it! It’s living art!

What a lovely assistent you have! 😊

Hi David I have those all in my garden but I used cane poles. Thanks for the video God bless you and your family ❤️🙏❤️🙏

Right on, good Sir the time may soon come to use these basic supply nature has provided. Probably best to practice now thank you

Yes, free and beautiful, love it 😊

Oh my!!! It is simple and beautiful I have bamboo from a neighbor's yard- and I need better trellises Love your book easy Florida gardening Thanks for all the great ideas

Great hack! Thank you so much for demonstrating 🙂👍

Looking for solutions with things from around the home is also good for your brain. More solutions you come up with, then other solutions will be easier to think of

Excellent! Use your existing wood supply!

Geemany Christmas! I spaced that off also, and I have lots of saplings that need to be cut down.... no more buying cattle panels and posts for the garden.

Dave, I think you've convinced me. I need to get a machete.

Great advice to use what you have and keep costs down.

You rock my friend. God bless you happy Easter.

Yep, I do the same thing 👍. Love the look of using natural 😊 👵🏻👩‍🌾❣️

What a great idea!! Thank you!

Great idea David!

David I'm using bamboo pole to make mine.Thank you for helping so many who have no money.

That was freaking awesome!

Thank you for sharing this.now I'm going to try for me 😊

That is brilliant. Here in the UK getting the wood is tricky. I've been going to a small wood early in the mornings with my dog and getting what I can but can't get them too long as they don't fit in the car! But I have made a few garden structures which so far have stayed up 😊

Thank you David . Great idea.

Exactly what I was planning to do!

😂 I absolutely love that, The Shire -V- The Trellis To Make You Jealous. (In my best fake English accent) The Shire style is quite stylish 🥰 (say that fast 3 times) Looks like it's time to get busy out in the yard. Thanks for the cool video.... and cool stuff for free is 🙌🎉🤗

If Necessity is the Mother of all Invention, Laziness is Invention's Dad. "Where do inventions come from?" "Well, little Timmy, when Necessity and Laziness love each other very, very much..."

Yes! I LalalalaLove this style for you!

That is speaking my language! I wanna live in the shire!

My goodness your smart😊 thanks for sharing ❤

And your plants love it better too. That's what I will do this years season of growing. I cut down so saplings for the job. Between them and so grape vines that grow wildly.

Rustic charm, indeed. :)

That is great!!

Perfect timing

I am going to need a few of those for my tomatoes

Simple and effective

Thanks for sharing

Wow. I came to this same idea for my tomatoes but by a different route -- bushcraft.

We use saplings for so much in the garden - outlining raised beds, teepees, trellises, wood sheds, but I never thought of putting a beam between two teepees. Thank you for that innovation. I love your channel. You have so many great ideas. I live in zone 3, so much of your fruit tree suggestions must be adapted to my own hardiness zone, however I get a lot of value from your ideas. I bought two of your books. 🤓 One question I had, with pruning the fruit trees low to the ground and opening them up will they break at the fork under heavy snow? In snowy areas is it better to let them have a single top?

Thank you going to make some to save money on cattle panels.

David, that road is harsh. Worked next to a motorway in the UK & could block it out mostly, but do you find it an imposition? Come & check out Portugal if ever you have a wanderlust. Without the wind, we can literally only hear the blood in our veins. Best to you & yours. Merry Christmas, may it be joyful.

David. "What if you didn't have any money" Me. Hey, that's me🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️ he's talking to Me!!!!! I immediately hit the like button 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Thank you!

Perfect!

If you burn the bottoms of the sticks or saplings that go in the ground the bottoms won't rot. It's a little extra work but I get an extra year out of mine, sometimes longer depending on the wood. :) Nice work there Dave 👍😊👍

Love ya David!!!