Free Trellis

I have a trellis addiction. I'm also very cheap.

Some ornamental clematis by my driveway needed something to climb. I tried netting, thinking it would look cool as it was basically invisible against the vinyl fence, but it kept getting tangled in everything. I made do with some cheap wire tomato cages for a while, but they didn't have the look I wanted either.

Then a friend's underbuilt porch/awning collapsed in a storm last summer, and they were kind enough to let me take the vertical supports. My original plan was to weld them into something, but I abandoned that idea when I realized the metal they were made of was too thin.

They sat behind my nearly-completed chicken coop for almost a year. I have a bad habit of piling materials back there, as you can see.

With the clematis coming up in the spring, I had a deadline. I finally cobbled the supports together into something. Aside from electricity, this didn't cost me a penny. I had gotten the 2x4 for free, salvaged the sheet metal screws from work, and welded the corners out of some angle aluminum from an abandoned project.

I used leftover brackets from the vinyl fence to attach the trellis to the fence. It's so lightweight that I'm not worried about it pulling loose or damaging the fence.

I was assured that clematis would grow as high as they possibly could, up to 20' tall. Clearly this was a lie, as mine lost interest after less than 6'. But I'm still pretty happy with the look. The clematis on the ends are Warsaw Nikes, and the one in the middle is a lavender variety I can't remember the name of. It's never been very enthusiastic.