Skip The Trellis: There's A More Creative Way To Show Off Climbing Plants

There's something so captivating and whimsical about plants with vines that love to wander. Often prolific growers, climbing plants reach for the sun by using walls, trees, fences, bushes, railings, and trellises to their advantage. Climbers typically lack stems with enough strength to facilitate upright growth. Without these support systems, they may sprawl across the ground until they find something to latch onto or struggle to thrive. That's why providing your climbers with things to climb on is so important. But do you really need to spend your hard-earned dough on expensive trellises? Not with a fallen tree branch and a little bit of good old-fashioned elbow grease, you don't! 

If you're looking for an easy and inexpensive DIY trellis, this is it. To craft a useful and sweetly rustic trellis for your garden, you only need a fallen branch, some pruners or a hand saw, and a drill with some screws. The finished product is a wooden ladder that's perfect for magical things like vines and gnomes to climb. Simply lean it against a fence or a wall and let your garden do the rest. What we love about this project is that it's so organic in nature that you don't need to have any real building chops to pull this off. It doesn't require straight lines and precise measurements. Matter of fact, if the final product is a little cockeyed or the steps aren't quite the same size, it adds to the charm. But remember: It won't be a permanent fixture, as the wood will naturally begin to break down after a few years.

With the right tools, making this beautiful DIY garden trellis couldn't be much simpler. Once you've found a fallen branch that's suitable for the size of your project, use pruners to remove all of the shoots and small branches. This will leave you with a rustically knobbed yet smooth enough limb to work with. Before moving further, decide how tall you want the trellis to be and measure accordingly. Using a hand saw (or small electric pruning saw), cut the branch to make two long pieces and three to eight smaller pieces, depending on the intended height of the trellis. These will act as the rails and the steps, respectively. After laying the two long pieces parallel to one another on the ground, arrange the steps in a relatively equidistant fashion and secure them in place using a drill. If you'd rather not mess with the drill at all, fasten them with some twine or cord using transom knots. 

Maybe you've got some vining plants that are already in need of a trellis, or perhaps you're preparing to introduce them to your space. In that case, you may be wondering how to find a vining plant that won't take over your home. You've got options. Our favorite is crabapple kiwi, with its twisty vines and sweet rosy-pink color that add so much enchantment to the garden. Alternatively, clematis vines are equally eye-catching and come in small, compact varieties.