A trellis is simply a devise that allows plant vines to grow vertically instead of growing along the ground. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive to build, just use things found around the house or yard that will support the weight of the plant, even a fence line can be the trellis.
Old pallets make great trellis-building material. There are many ways to make a trellis from old pallets, so let your imagination flow.
Gather your materials and tools. You will need safety glasses (safety first), an old pallet, wood stakes or scrap sticks or wood pieces that can be pounded into the soil, screws, a drill with a screw driver bit and a small drill bit to pre-drill for the screws if necessary.
For this purpose, I chose a basic stake trellis.
Lay the pallet on the floor or work table, so that the face of the pallet is down. Lay one of the stakes on the bottom board. If I were building this pallet trellis to go outside in the ground, I would screw the stake into the board, so that it would go into the soil as far as possible. You can cut any excess wood away from the stake if desired, but this is optional.
Drill a pilot hole into the stake (if necessary), and then screw the stake onto the pallet. My trellis will be lightweight and only used indoors, so only two screws were necessary on each stake, but make your trellis as secure as you need.
Place the trellis in the area of your container or garden desired. Use a mallet to pound the stakes into the ground if necessary, or dig a hole for the trellis and back-fill around the stakes.
Plant your vining plants and train them to grow and weave in and out of the trellis.
Also an excellent way to grow string beans indoors!
Whether ugly or practical, whether too big or not, and all other considerations aside, I must speak out against using old pallets anywhere near gardens. Many of them are chemically treated to prevent rot or to prevent pests from getting into the containers set on them. Some are made from recycled wood of questionable sources. Unless you know where the wood came from, how it was handled, and what the contents were that sat upon them, don’t use pallets in your garden — not even for compost bins! There are better and safer alternatives!
I would love to try this , I found a free pallet much larger and will paint it for a it of added color, as wel as use a small one for a trellis and paint it as well primer and all to last longer. Thank you for al the helpful articles and photos also; I’m enjoying your site!
Look for pallets bearing an IPPC symbol (Stenciled or branded into the wood). These will certify if the pallet is HT (heat treated) these are import-export pallets. HT means no chemicals were used in preserving the pallet wood. DO not select a pallet no matter how pretty that is stenciled MB-this indicates the pallet (AKA “skid”) was chemically preserved with Methyl Bromide-nasty stuff. The country of manufacture is right there. US, CN, JP,-you get the idea of course the wood in a Korean or Japanese pallet may have been harvested in Siberia or Ohio which depending on the season, are pretty much the same. Plus, these are often hardwood pallets which can last a couple of seasons.
Depending on your location, be very careful when grabbing pallets from stacks. Nothing a like a Brown Recluse bite to liven up a project.
If using free pallets from a local source, make sure they are not blue painted. “CHEP” traffics pallets worldwide. They and companies like Coke get cranky when their returnable pallets end up in your garden.
Really, Mike. I love most of your postings but this has to be the ugliest trellis I have ever seen….maybe could be used in the back of the veggie garden for cukes or something.
Mary, that project was a contribution from one of our readers. I agree she really phoned that one in. It’s my fault, not Mike’s.
then why did you post it..it is ugly over-sized for most plants and a waste of time..a pallet is a pallet…tired of pallet projects.. you should do better.
Shouldn’t be so critical.
Mary and Karen, just because you two don’t like the pallet trellis doesn’t mean everyone will. I have found many uses for pallets and think they are great. I think you two are being a little cruel since the person that sent that in probably read your comments. Like my momma always said “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything”.
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I think this was an April fools project…try bed springs…they make great trellises or canopies for heavier vegetables or put two for a teepee for dogs or kids!
Mike,
You have sent out several e-mails under the heading ” I must be crazy” . Your video on shipping plants indicated that you did not have compost ( amongst other things) this time of year. The article sent out this week awarding you two rubber chickens because you were relating your donkeys activity – are you all CRAZY.
I have been following you for 4 or more years now – there has been no mention of VERMICOMPOSTING – I had assumed it was such “old hat” that everyone of your followers was doing it If not why not? we all need compost and this is FREE.
I live in zone 5 with no garbage collection – finding the garden compost heap under 3 ft of snow is no joke neither is the mouse problem if you store the waste. The solution for us is WORMS in totes in the basement – we are a household of 2 and have about 2 cubic yards of compost accumulated this winter waiting for the weather to break – and the kicker Mike – the worms you get in Donkey Dung are ideal for the purpose – a $5 Tote and a $2 boot tray and you are up and running.
There are many Youtube posting on the subject and quite a few websites – no shortage of information
Edward,
You are absolutely right. Currently I am not doing any vermicomposting, but I should be. I haven’t raised worms since I was a kid when we attempted to raise a few for fishing, and I’m sure we had no idea what we were doing. I do need to get on that.
That’s right, Mike. I live in the mountains at beautiful Lake Tahoe. We often have snowpack into June. I have two worm compost bins in the garage. Every summer I have two five gallon pails just about full of “black gold” compost and that’s just from two peoples kitchen waste! The best part is, those little crawlers are so good at what they do there is no unpleasant odor, my garage does NOT smell like a landfill. The trick is no meat, only vegetable matter, egg shells and coffee grounds (remember no citrus or onion family waste – too acidic). I hope all of your readers will start their own worm revolution!
Thanks for all of your great tips, Mike. Garden on.
Every garden should have a stack of these ole jewels. Benches, chairs, vertical planting walls, compost making,. planting benches. you name it, Mike has shown he will keep you informed to the latest use for them. A little paint does wonders for them. Thanks Mike, glad I am a member of the group, you and your members are priceless, there is not a book in any book store that has all this information and education of the group!
Thanks Jim, I truly appreciate your kind words.
Here in the west central side of Florida we start gardening in September. Most everything except Cucumbers and beans are ready to grow when the days shorten up and our temps drop below the high 90s. Everything I grow is planted from seed and starting some of the seeds is a little tricky when the temp is too high. Plants like lettuce can be planted but must be kept cool as possible. By the time all my seedlings are ready to leave my little greenhouse for the garden it is well into Oct. That leaves me little time to mature any tomatoes or peppers. I do however, get a pretty good start on the tomatoes and can see which plants are the best producers of the best tomatoes and peppers. We always get a killing frost around Christmas or early january. When I see that coming I don’t even try to save anything because the plants will always be damaged. instead, I take cuttings off the best plants and start those in my greenhouse. For my spring garden I then have the started plants from the best of my best and always get a great crop. The rest of my garden takes the frost just fine. All the cabbage family, onions, lettuce and even eggplant tolerate the cold just fine.
Gee, Andy, you don’t get much of a growing season. If I were in your situation I would only grow flowers.