To emphasize your point on these things lasting forever: As a kid in the 90s every summer I'd help my grandparents in the garden, cattle panel trellises absolutely laden with cucumbers and tomatoes. When they passed away, I requested to inherit the panels lest they end up in the trash, and have been using them every year in my own garden over twenty years later. Yeah, growing heirlooms on heirlooms.
That gave me the warm and fuzzies! My g-ma didn’t have cattle panels but she built her outdoor furniture out of cinder blocks. When she passed I asked if I could have her potting bench and seats. My aunts and uncle kinda laughed as if I didn’t know what I was asking. I loaded all of those cinder blocks up and there were almost enough to construct a small shed. Our truck rode low that evening. I still have that “potting bench” that will outlive me.
Perfect timing! I’m not joking, yesterday I showed my wife arched trellises using cattle panel, asking if she’s okay if we have these connecting our garden beds when we move to Florida later this year. I’ve been told all of my beds need to either have a neat perimeter with bricks, or be raised beds. She hosts women’s Bible study for our church, and she wants a backyard that doesn’t look like a farm. I got the approval from her to make arch trellises to connect beds in the walkways, so I’ll be able to walk under some of my food. I’m going to make as many of them as possible, so I get as much food as possible, while keeping my better half happy! 😂
You might want to spray paint the panels and the Tposts to match. I wish I had thought of that before I installed mine. They would have a nicer aesthetic appeal in the off seasons.
Ask your wife if she wants to draw the layout of the garden and then do what you can to make the layout the way she likes it. She gets involved in the projects and you get a way out if she doesn't like the looks.
So glad you included the price increase in the panels. I'm stunned to see the price doubled in 5 years. More of that transitory inflation running only five to 6% per year🙄💩
If you Double up on T posts, you can wire those cattle panels a couple feet above ground .. extra height for tall gardeners, and another couple feet of growing space.
And use the actual clips for attaching the cattle panels, zip ties will break. my trellises are all over a decade old and just as sturdy as the day I put them up
Im 6'4 and looking to build some trellising, thank you so much for this advice, I've been looking for cattle panel long enough and never considered this
@@sirblacksmith2297 I'm the runt of the litter, just 6" even .. I've got one brother 6'4 and another 6'8 (9 if he doesn't slouch). It ain't easy being a giant in today's world
I did something similar, but instead of spiking in those bent metal things, I just measured about 5 feet width, hammered some 5 foot t posts about 1 to 2 feet down into the ground. Walked my cattle panel so the skinny end was now against the ground next to the t post, pulled other end toward me until I had in against the second t post. Zip ties, same as you. My t posts look a bit higher than yours which allowed me to use a couple extra zip ties. Seems very sturdy. Did a second one about 2 feet from first. Growing a couple passionvines, and a grape vine on mine. Did this by myself, no adorable helper like you. I'm a 5'6", 64 yr old female. 2 cattle panels, 4 t posts total, 2 per panel. I was nervous about tackling it myself at first, but it was pretty easy really, I'd do it again elsewhere in my yard.
You can do it Marla! You don't have to do it all in one day either. Maybe set your posts one day, and the cattle panel on another. The cattle panels are awkward to handle, I very slightly folded my panels in half, but not all the way, just to make it easier to get in place, just take your time, it's not a race right? 😉
I have a cattle panel trellis that's raised up more, with 2 t posts on each side, and metal plumbers tape holding one side to the house. It's on the south side, over a window. In the hot season plants growing on it shades that window.
We love these too! If you don’t have those cool metal chunks, you can just put the T posts in first and that’ll hold the cattle panel until you can zip tie it. We make the arch taller by putting them towards the inner edges of the bed for us giant people to be able to walk under.
I had no way to haul cattle panels, so I constructed an arch with T posts on each side and a curved pvc arch from one post to the other. I made 3 of these, lined them up and fastened welded wire fencing to cover the arching pvc. Holds up well for years, easy to deconstruct and move.
Very nice David I need to purchase some Cattle Panels they sure have went up in price Love the scavenging for free post n materials every little bit helps God bless 😊👍 🙏 🇺🇸
I grow a lot of things up my cattle panel arches. I also love using half cattle panels arched for a low tunnel. They support tarps if need be, shade cloth, and row cover. May need help to keep from snagging row cover on sharp points, but it works and is easy to stack move around. I also use these half arches for hanging onions and garlic over them to cure in the warm season. Lets them get air circulation, and the tops hang down thru and dry quickly.
We had rows of cattle panel trellises, grew beans on them. We took them all down last fall, because the weeds took over. We wanted to turn the Bean Field into our grocery row garden, so the Bean Field is currently under a silage tarp, to turn the bean field into the weed killing field.
I'm making bed sidings, mulch and climbing features out of old Christmas trees this year. I collected 7 of them today and will probably get more next weekend. I don't have a car so today my small rural town was treated to the sight of a crazy garden gnome walking her tree. Or was I brushing the road? Maybe doing a door-to-door dog service? Training with trees as a green alternative to tires? People would stop and stare and dogs were barking at me, upset I had my own porta-potty. I love gardening enough to become the crazy tree lady in my neighborhood. :D
Cattle panels are worth their weight in gold for trellising. Hardest part is getting them home from the store. If you have an 8-foot truck bed or a similar size trailer, you can load them "arched" just like your trellis. Just tie them down good and they will ride just fine.
I purchased 4 at the beginning of 2020... when they were just $20 a piece! Hired my Handyman and his Gardening Neighbor Friend to help me install. It went fast! They even sliced 2 of them in half w some grinder tool to make narrower arches to fit better with the design of my raised beds. We anchored them with a 6 foot TPost on each end and secured with wire because I had no idea how the clips that came with it worked!! ( Hurricane country ) I heard zip ties work but I didn't trust that for the long term. I also have them propped about 10 inches above the soil level so I can work the ground underneath. My advice to anyone installing these for the first time is anchor your posts first. I hit a huge rock ( or petrified wood?) trying to drive the 6 Foot T posts into one of my raised beds ... so had to improvise the plan a bit. They are so worth having!!
Hi hubby and I did the very same thing for the first time this week with a 12 foot panel attaching it w fence clips to 2 T-posts and the old fence posts where the gate used to be at the entrance of our swale grocery row garden. It’s about 2’ off the ground to be able to walk under.
Probably not a good idea for grapes. Those woody grape vines need to be cut and removed every year and would be real hard to pull out of the panels. Most all grape growers (including me) use a two wire system.
My hope is to use them this year on a new property. Last year I use 2x3 fencing as a wall garden-had five or six Kershaw squashes supported by that and some PVC posts.
I’ve done a cheap tripod by loosely tying 3 bamboo sticks together. Leave the branches but remove the leaves. Then put a steak in beside two of the three and plant your beans around them. Do not plant around the third bamboo. When you want to pick beans up high, just lift the third bamboo and walk away from the other two. The tripod will lower and when done push it back up. Sometimes we put in a third steak and put a loop of twine around it to secure the third one so it can’t blow over. Makes for great vertical growing.
I adore these things use the more narrow ones for the 4 ft side of my beds as climbers that arch and connect to the next bed… and the wider panels for the exterior fence to keep our large dogs out…. had my son weld a four foot section on each end of the large pieces so I could give a try at growing hops…can’t wait to,see the results…thanks for sharing I totally agree cost isn’t great but it also looks like they aren’t going down either…an investment…for the future garden..blessings wished
Getting to the end and was just wondering about muscadine grapes, I have one and was debating to start a line like I saw Scott head do or do something like this DTG, so please do an update.
I love the cattle panels.. I kind of went nuts on my latest one and used PVC with trellis netting and reinforced with tie wire. Love the video David! Thank you!
I wanted to grow food on mine but the roses took over and they look fantastic. Glad they didn't listen to me. Now I'm thinking a smaller section would work for cukes by clamped to the ground in my mounded dirt no dig bed. Then attach the top of the section to the top of the neighboring cattle panel that is like a volley ball net. That way my tomatoes under the volley ball net would get a bit of shade when my FL heat is at the worst and the cukes would provide shade for the bags I grow the maters in. WIN, WIN.! Love the cheap ideas!
I am currently still sporting a bamboo trellis and frame that still stands.. from the dark days of the covid era when lumber was more expensive than gold.. its on its last year. And i used our best friend zip ties only have had to replace a few here and there each year at the important spots structurally I cant tell if the trellis was inspired by the tv show Lost or Fantasy Island At the time the bamboo was cheaper Now its time to build a trellis much like one of these.. a mix of trellis to make you jealous and being cheap Thank you ✌🏻🙏🏻👍🏻🇺🇸
I love this setup! In Canada you're looking at about $110. The panel alone is $80. Still worth it for how handy they are and how nice they look once there covered in plants!
I have done these hoops for grapevines (and portable chicken housing). I drive the 2 T posts on each side first, ,then place the cattle panels. I connect them with electric fence wire. Lasts for years and very stable. I think you might find that the zip ties are not UV resistant and will need to be replaced pretty frequently. Just a thought....
Speaking of fencing... do y'all plan to show the tall outer fence line at some point? We need to that at our place (lots of deer) and are thinking of some cost effective (CHEAP) ways to do it! Thanks! Great video!
Put up my first cattle panel trellis a few months ago and I love it. It’s gonna have Armenian cucumber and Chinese noodle beans on it this summer. If my grape vine ever decides to be alive, it’ll grow there too. I currently have a solar powered string lights on it and it looks magical at night.
Ok this is funny....Hubby and I just installed my very first cattle panel (same gauge as you have there) trellis Saturday. I laughed at the awkwardness of you carrying that thing, because that was us only worse...we're in a smaller space and tried not to completely tear up my garlic. Maneuvering that thing was not easy😂😂 Planted squash, armenian cucs and sowed red Chinese Noodle beans at the base. On the other side will be cucs and kajari melons (mice ate mine on the ground last yr). Can already tell, one more will be purchased for my small garden😁
Rather than zip ties, if you can find old discarded lengths of Romex electrical wiring you can cut the Romex to length and use them as twist ties. This way you can reuse them over and over. I have a bucket full of various lengths that I have been using for 5+ years.
Hi I watched you make Terra petra soil and was wondering how thats going now its been a couple years I'd like to see if it's started to change colour and how good it is and was also wondering if you placed all the Terra petra ingredients into a cement mixer like the bricklayers have would it be better. I know nature goes in layers but I think this is different. I messaged you before about sandy soil I just bought a place with sandy soil and will be trying Terra petra that's why I'm keen on seeing how your experiment went. Thanks Tony from Australia
I tend to use bamboo for climbing things… your way is better but like you I am cheap and don’t mind it crumbling into a mess as long as I got to be cheap. Scrubland farm nursery is great especially if you want hard to find plants that grow in my area for about 1/3rd the price I expected. Sam traded me moringa seeds for jackfruit seeds today although if one of us did not have anything it looked like the other was still giving. Thanks for mentioning Sam and scrubland farms nursery because it makes my sundays so much more enjoyable
I imagine a lot mr the goods viewers have done it with bamboo a sticks. We watch this channel because unlike other channel David shows us the least expensive ways to do things. Other channels seem to try to sell us a product like raised beds. David sells us the virtues of basic tools and methods
I imagine a lot mr the goods viewers have done it with bamboo a sticks. We watch this channel because unlike other channel David shows us the least expensive ways to do things. Other channels seem to try to sell us a product like raised beds. David sells us the virtues of basic tools and methods
I imagine a lot mr the goods viewers have done it with bamboo a sticks. We watch this channel because unlike other channel David shows us the least expensive ways to do things. Other channels seem to try to sell us a product like raised beds. David sells us the virtues of basic tools and methods
I imagine a lot mr the goods viewers have done it with bamboo a sticks. We watch this channel because unlike other channel David shows us the least expensive ways to do things. Other channels seem to try to sell us a product like raised beds. David sells us the virtues of basic tools and methods
I love it. I hope my wife doesn't see this, she'll make me build her one today. We use bamboo (we're in Thailand) so, that lasts about a year before the insects turn it into powder. Those cattle panels don't exist here, neither do "T" posts. I MIGHT be able to do it with doubling up cement reinforcement screen but, I'd need to get some REALLY good rust/waterproof paint like Epoxy. Eh....got plenty of bamboo......
The cattle panels are the way to go!! I put a stake on each corner. Lemme tell you…They hold up. i went through SMACK DAB in the middle of hurricaine Ian last fall. Cat 4 hurricaine, that lasted for like 16 hrs at least, winds at 145 mph, horrendous!! Completely ripped my veggie garden to shreds. But those cattle panels. Didn’t budge an inch! 🤣 i even plant under them. Easy to throw shade cloth over. Or a threat of frost. Easy to throw something over them.
Thanks for all you do David. If you haven't seen the documentary "Back to Eden Gardening" by Dana and Sarah Films on RU-vid I feel you'll enjoy it. Thanks again brother Gary Cecil
Great video, we wete talking about cattle panels, the windcis pretty intense here. Can you plant your creeper on the outside, and some shade loving plants on the inside? Thanks!
Take a rope or tie down strap to hold it in its hoop shape without the need for pins. You can hoop it on you drive way or trailer then one man can carry it into place. Secure one side with the post, then adjust the strap to get the other side placed.
