DIY Cattle Panel Trellis Arch

To make a Cattle Panel Trellis, you really only need a few things. We picked up most of our materials at a local Tractor Supply store but you could find these materials at other farm/garden centers too or order online. The trickiest part was getting everything home since the cattle panel is fairly large. Thankfully my father-in-law has a pickup truck and was able to pick up the items for us.

Materials:

• Cattle Panel
• T-posts (you can buy them individually in store too)
• Large Hose Clamps or some heavy duty wire
• a heavy hammer or  fence post driver

How To:

First, figure out where you want your arch to go. For us we put it just inside our garden gate to frame the entrance. It’s also on the north side of our garden so it won’t shade the other veggies too much.

Once you have it laid out and square, drive the t-posts in with a hammer or post driver until they’re deep and sturdy. This was easier-said-than-done with our rocky soil here in NH, so one post couldn’t go in quite as deep as the others but it was sturdy enough still.

Next gently bend the cattle panel into a “rainbow” and set it inside the square you made. (Next year we might move our t-posts out a little wider to get a more gentle and less-tall arch, but this worked fine for us too as-is.)

Once you get it in place, secure it with hose clamps, heavy duty wire, or some rope so it stays in place.

Now you can plant! We planted ours with vining cucumbers, but you could plant just about any vining plant on these - including peas, squash, ornamental gourds, flowers, etc.

The vines do a great job climbing the arch on their own, but it’s a good idea to check them daily and gently guide the vines where you want them. There’s always a rogue vine that will try to go the other way! They will especially need some help being trained to follow along the top of the arch since their natural inclination will be to continue growing straight up rather than bending around the curve at the top.

And that’s it! Overall it was a very easy project and one we will definitely continue with in the future. I also noticed a huge benefit for our pollinators too - the bees were able to reach the flowers easily and we had a bumper crop of cucumbers this year. They were also very easy to pick hanging down from the arch.

Good luck on your cattle panel trellis adventure!

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Additional photos and links on my blog: http://www.birchlandinghome.com/journal/2021/4/26/diy-cattle-panel-trellis-arch

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