You guuuuys! For me, it’s the little things that make my heart sing. I’m 100% sure I’m not the only one who’s ever waited for something and then is skip-happy when the day finally arrives for your vision to come true. Below is my raised bed garden. Yes, it’s in my front yard and yes, I love it. I call it #mowlessgrowmore gardening. Today, I get to add a DIY arched garden trellis that I know you’ll love too! {{applause}}

Now, I have always grown up in years past (aka. vertical gardening). We have our grape arbor on the left, a split rail fence where we grow our squash and pumpkins. Likewise, I have always used our DIY trellising made of wood, which has worked wonderfully for over 6 years. However, my trellises were getting so aged that we needed to make more. This time around, I wanted to add more eye-candy and make our efforts less labor-intensive – something we don’t have to tear down each year. Here’s a picture of our garden from years past.

Hopefully, you can see the trellis in action. I actually use the idea from one of my favorite garden resources by Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm. He has plenty of wonderful books and tips to grow naturally in every season, and also using companion planting. So, as you can see, we enjoy growing and sharing our harvest. This time, though, our garden is growing up in different ways.

GARDEN TIME

First, at this point in the season, we have already made any amending with our compost (DIY compost bin HERE) and a special soil treatment made by a local farmer here. It’s super-powered concentrate of compost that you need to mix in as it’s too strong to apply directly to plants. We also often make compost tea to add even more boost.

Next, we happily can say I have oogled over this DIY arched garden trellis for a few years over at Delia Creates. Then, when it’s my turn, I totally referenced her experience and made some small changes to suit our needs. Based on the size of our middle bed, I knew we could add 6 trellises. Seriously, it doesn’t get any simpler than this. Best part is, I got to shop my dad’s barn. When I mentioned my scheme to him, he right away mentioned he had a few cattle panels we could shop from in his bank barn. I love going to that barn!

Can you blame me when you can find treasure like this old door? Just look at those rollers. wow!

NEXT STEPS

Okay, so back to the DIY arched garden trellis. Y’all know I’m a sucker for arches as I’ve added them in my home and in my decor. Therefore, it’s inevitable I add them to my garden. First, we pick up the panels…THAT was interesting. How do you bring 17 foot x 4 foot panels home? We bent them and tucked them into our borrowed cargo van. This was after just coming home from the vet finding out our 14 year old mini schnauzer would need put down the next day. My little shadow is now gone….sniff. What a sweetie! I still find myself looking for him. So hard.

After we load them up and come home, I quickly put dinner together. The minute I sit down, my son is in the basement and says there’s water spraying out of our brand-new furnace. UGH. Jump up and turn off the A/C. Apparently one of the pipes had a crack and spraying water all over my shop inventory. (I can’t tell you how many times someone has sprayed water all over my inventory). Clean up the mess, try to eat, and unload the panels.

UNREAL

Next day, I have to mentally and emotionally prepare for saying goodbye to Teddy. Then, after getting my purse I realize that I lost the key to the barn. I need to go get groceries, so I ask my husband, JC, to check the van. While finishing groceries, he says he can’t find it. I decided to head back to my dad’s barn and see if I can find it. Upon arrival, I noticed someone just mowed. {{head smack}} Of course they did…my run of events is never normal.

My littlest and I head around back to see if it’s even worth looking. I peek around and find the paper tag. Do I bother even looking for the key? It fell out right near a 1 ft tall field of grass. That thing could have been thrown anywhere. Finally, I decided to take a quick look around and there it was.

Honestly, I know this kind of eventful day is our norm. Thankfully, the next day we have a distraction of a birthday to celebrate in our home that lightens our heavy hearts. That same day, we also had time to install the panels as my plants are dying in their trays. eep!

INSTALLATION

I did need to purchase the t-posts (also called u-posts) and clips. Delia Creates uses zip ties, but we already had clips from our grape arbor and stash of t-posts for our firewood stash and DIY compost bins.

Funny…JC asked what we need before he heads into the store. Does he come out with what I list for him? Nah. He gets what he thinks is best. (eye-roll). You can use a post pounder, but these heavy-duty 5 ft posts are short, and our soil is soft, so a small sledge works fine. Also, they store tried to tell him he needed a fork tool to put the clips on (though I told him we didn’t need one). After him trying to figure out the tool, I pull up a one-minute video showing how to do it with pliers. (time to return $20 tool as originally stated was not needed. ahem.)

MORE TRELLISING

Once we got the hang of bending and clipping, the other 5 panels went in smoothly. We even had the best helpers hold them in place while we anchored them.

They looked like they were stuck in jail. haha! We even thought Lily, our calico, would be a great astronaut on one end of those should it decide to fling loose.

Also, in order to install the other 6 on the other side, I needed to thin my strawberries. This makes it fun for me to share. I had 4 – 5 gallon buckets to spare. Fun!

Finally, we can call the installation DONE. Sweat equity pays off in so many ways, doesn’t it? And that is literal sweat as it’s 90 degrees in that sun. whew!

Then, the next day, I planted tomatoes, pickles (see my crock pickle recipe HERE), and nasturtiums on the trellises. Also, I filled in around them with basil, carrots, broccoli, peppers, and cabbage.

So exciting to see my grapes coming on, and also the clematis blooming for the first time on my arbor.

As a result, I hope you are feeling the garden lovin’ and are inspired to give this trellis a try. In addition, do pin and share so others can grow up too with this DIY arched garden trellis. Gardening is where it’s at.

Oh…and the next day…look what I found…not where a roofing nail belongs. And so it goes…

Up next, this thrifted trio is getting a mini makeover. See their new look HERE!

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Also, more garden fun like this DIY arched garden trellis: