DIY Vineyard Trellis Repair

Brooke Bowman
by Brooke Bowman
5 Materials
$50
2 Hours
Easy
When our muscadine trellis weathered a heavy storm this past year, we lost the back half of the 50-year old structure. Rather than tear it all down and start over again from scratch, we opted to salvage what was left and simply fix it. One hot afternoon and a few simple supplies later, we're pretty proud of how it turned out!
We started the project like this. The back portion of the trellis was torn off. It was comprised of the original beams, which the former homeowner had installed in the early 1960s. Over time, the wood had simply rotted and a big storm was enough to knock them over. Thankfully, the pipes along the top remained intact so there wasn't too much to re-do. First, we dug post holes for the new trellis supports using a simple metal shovel. We dug about 12 inches into the ground.
First, we dug post holes for the new trellis supports using a simple metal shovel. We dug about 12 inches into the ground.
Then, we assembled and nailed together the 2x4s. We wanted to double the beams because we use this trellis and its vines to generate quite a few pounds of grapes every year. We harvest them for muscadine and scuppernong wine as well as preserves and juice. We love to garden and have many planting systems around the house, including a small pond where we're experimenting with hydroponics. Yet, our trellis and its fruit are one of our most prized harvests, so we didn't want to risk losing this structure to the weather again.
Then, we used standing supports to attach the 2x4s to the top bars. These top portions are made of old pipe that may have to be replaced at some point in the future. For now, we kept them because it's actually beneficial that they're made of pipe and not wood. It makes them less suseptible to rot and reinforces them against weather conditions.
We stepped back from the structure to make sure all of our measurements lined up and everything was straight. At first, we noticed that it was leaning a little bit to the left, but after deepening one of holes, everything seemed to be straight, or at least as straight as it was going to get to the human eye.
Then, we filled the holes with concrete so the trellis wouldn't budge again, even amid the strongest and heaviest winds and rain. We used a nearby stick to etch our initials and the date in the concrete so we could always remember our special project that we completed together.
Our final step was to backfill the post holes with dirt to secure the trellis supports even further. We may plant a little grass over this spot of dirt in the future but for now we are content to leave it as is.
Voila! I hope these new supports last another 50 years like the original ones did! We plan to plant a few more vines to cover the remainder of the top portion and to replace the ones we lost in the storm.
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Brooke Bowman
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