trellises

[johno]

I'm cheap.

I really like cattle panels and steel posts for trellises, but I hate paying for them.

This year, I will be using tree branches that would otherwise be burned in a brush pile. I'm not too sure how well it's gonna' work, but there's one way to find out. I intend to set them in postholes. I know they'll rot eventually, but if they're good enough for one season, I'll be happy. There will be more next year. At the end of the season, they'll make a fine start for a new compost heap.

[houseodessey]

I wish I could afford to be cheap. DH and I tried to make a teepee trellis out of bamboo yesterday. It was truly a pathetic attempt, worthy of some kind of slapstick youtube goofiest garden architects of the year award. I'm just going to dole out some bucks to save us the embarassment. We did cheap out and buy the 5' T-posts for our tomatos and will be adding on to them with scraps of wood and such to make them 8' tall. There's some frugality for you.

[Alan]

I understand how it is guys, some stuff just costs way too much money.

Exspecially stakes, cages, and telis.

The only way I can ever hope to have all that I need is to collect a few more every year, and then when i'm 60, maybe i'll have enough.

[johno]

I raid our generations-old farm for cattle panels and whatever other trellis materials I can find, too. This year, I found six sections of one of those old TV antenna towers, that I'll use for cherry tomatoes.

I keep trying to get my hands on some timber bamboo that will grow here. That would be the cat's meow for trellis material. Chickens-on-Mars ( a fellow idigger) sent me some from California, but the last of the starts died recently. Very disappointing... But, since I'm cheap, I'll keep looking for bamboo starts. They are outrageously expensive to buy.

Tipis. That's a subject unto itself. The tipi trellises most people are talking about are simple tripods, which work fine. I recommend researching how to erect a traditional tipi, though. These structures are designed to withstand the winds of the Great Plains, and they really aren't too hard to build. The scale doesn't have to match the chief's lodge to be useful in the garden, either. One last note: if plastic or frost-barrier material were used in the place of tanned hides, these structures would make one hell of an off-season greenhouse.

[houseodessey]

I don't know if what I have is timber bamboo or not, but I have a ton of it. Tell me what timber bamboo is and if this is it, I'll dig up a huge box full of starts for you, Johno.

[lavandulagirl]

Doink!!! If bamboo starts getting passed out, I want to be on the list!!!! If you can use it to make tipis I'm so interested. I'm in zone 6B/7, do you think it'll be hardy?

[houseodessey]

I have no idea. I was zone 7 until the arbor people decided I was 8 recently. I assume that VA is fairly similar to N TX. I'll dig some up and send it to you once it stops raining.

[lavandulagirl]

Sweet! Just let me know what shipping is, and I'll get the $ to you.

[johno]

Timber bamboo (hehe, I typed 'baboon' the first time...) can be trpoical or temperate. If it survives temperatures in the single digits, it is temperate, and that's the kind I can use. Also, timber bamboo is of large diameter, a few inches, plus or minus.

If this sounds like what you have, houseoddysey, I would do flips and twists to get a boxfull of it! Thanks for offering. (disclaimer: I can't really do flips...)

[houseodessey]

I'll have to take a look tomorrow. I have seen it get 3" wide but that is probably the older growth. It certainly is strong, though. I'll let you know in the next couple of days and maybe try to post some pictures as well.

[johno]

You might end up being very popular over this!

[shadowwalker]

I got two super deals on tobacco sticks. First buch, we had to clean out of a barn. Got over 2000 of them. Second buch, I had to clean out from under a barn that had fell down. I got over 4000 of them. Both bunches free for the hauling. I have used them for trellises, tomato stakes, roosts for younger chickens, I burn the broken ones. I am trying to figure out how to best use them for a wall along the back porch to grow our clematises and wisteria on. I make a odd looking trellis for my larger pots to sell at the greenhouse, for the larger vines. Like grape, kiwi, hycinth bean, ect. I use a single one stuck in the pot to the bottom. I then screw on cut pieces every four inches up to the top. And weave the vines on it. Looks cool.

[Alan]

Yeah, we've got about 14, 000 tobacco sticks here in our tobacco barn (this used to be a tobacco farm and I grew up helping my grandparents and parents raise and harvest it) and they are quite usefull, exspecially if you can find some old hand hughed ones, they will last forever. I used them last year to stake some tomatoes but soon found they weren't quite tall enough. Though they would be great for determinate tomatoes and they work well for poll beans too!

-Alan

[johno]

So, it's sounding like you have timber bamboo, houseoddysey. Are you sharpening your shovel yet?

I ran into a good deal on a garden fence. A friend of mine works cattle farms, and he saved several rolls of old woven wire from a farm where he put up new fencing. I traded him a roll of it long enough to encirle my garden for the promise of a dozen tomato plants. It will double as a trellis for my melons and squash, although it's a little short for that purpose... It's close to 200' long - I'd say I got a bargain!

[houseodessey]

I'll dig as soon as I get the go ahead from Canna along with instructions on what exactly to do so that I get you viable starts.

Good deal on the fence.