I plan on adding an update picture at the end of the summer either way. We’ve never built and grown something like this successfully, so we’ll see. Now will this work? Will the arches fill up with plants like we hope they will? Honestly? I don’t know. We also added some of the same flowers but in different colors. *See the end of this post for updates on how these plants did with pictures!įor our second arch, we planted green beans: Scarlet Emperor and Blue Lake, and some cucumbers. We also added morning glories and black eyed susan climbers to help attract pollinators and add more color. Putting gravel around our beds to add some heat and getting an early start with some larger tomato plants will hopefully help them thrive. Fingers crossed! Tomatoes can be a tricky crops to grow in Western Washington. We’re hoping they grow enough to climb over the top. Indeterminate tomatoes, unlike bush or determinate tomatoes, like to vine and climb. Step Four: Plant climbers.įor one arch, we planted a variety of heirloom indeterminate tomatoes on each side. Then fill the trench with soil, compressing it as you go, and bury the bottom of the cattle panel to the level of the raised bed. We then cut the excess ends off and sanded them down so they wouldn’t be so sharp (well most of them…we still haven’t gotten to all of them yet ha!). We secured each T post with at least four zip ties, spaced evenly from as close to the ground as possible to the top of the T post. Then bend the cattle panel into the other trench and zip tie it in place. This project definitely takes at least two people. Place one end of the cattle panel in one trench and secure with some zip ties while another person holds up the other end of the panel. Step Two: Dig a trench in the raised beds.ĭig a trench between each pair of T posts in each raised bed where you want the cattle panel to go. One of the long sides of the cattle panel has a narrower spacing between wires as well, so it helps have the panel in place to get the spacing accurate. We found it helpful to lay the cattle panel on top of the raised beds to see where we wanted it. Measure placement of the T posts and then pound them in with a post pounder at least a foot below ground level (not including soil in the raised beds). Note: I didn’t include the beds in the total cost of the garden arch. If you want to put them straight in the ground with raised beds, there are many other tutorials that will provide better info on how to do that probably with heavier duty T posts. I’m not sure that our method of arch installation would work as well without the support of the raised beds.We had a bunch of zip ties on hand, but I think you can get a bunch for around $5 or use some galvanized wire.You only need it for less than an hour, and it can run you $25+, so it’s worth asking around to save money. Most farms stores will carry them for about the same price. Our cattle panel was about $25 from Coastal which is chain farm store in the Pacific Northwest.They called the medium duty T posts, U posts. I got most of our T posts from Home Depot but they didn’t have quite enough for both of our trellises – we built two – so I went to a local farm store.1 – 16 foot long by 50 inch wide galvanized steel cattle panel, we got a 5 gauge panel, about $25.4 – four foot tall, medium duty T posts (may also be called U posts), about $4 each.My favorite part of this type of cattle panel arch is that it costs around $40 for each arch! So, you can get a lot of wow factor in your garden (once it fills up with plants) for just a small investment. Arched Trellis? You can probably see now why my title reads like a list of descriptions. Scroll down to step 4 to see what we planted.īut first, let’s talk trellis…arch. We put in a bunch of raised beds this year and I thought it would be fun to add some trellises to some of them for our climbing vegetables. In fact, it was post after post of these cattle panel garden arches that kept popping up in my Pinterest feed that made me finally build my own! So, I’m adding our own into the mix.
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