Yes, we were planning on using them horizontal to the ground with vertical supports.

Thanks for your input, and I will post an update once we get them finished and how it works out when we try growing on them.

My trellis was built for one long bed. The panels overlap a few inches; a T-post is placed at the start/end of each run and where the panels over lap; only one T-post is needed in the middle of each panel. This arrangement has supported tomatoes, cukes, and small gourds without any difficulty.

[I should say also that the bottoms of the panels are raised about 12-14" off the ground. That makes it interesting getting the vines started, but it supports them higher, providing extra growing space.]

We had to cut the panels in half to get them home, and they are going in a bed 17x4ft and another bed 19x4ft. So we will be overlapping ours a little too. Nice to know your arrangement worked for you.

I haven't used those clips before, I was thinking of using panty hose circles. Where did you get the clips and have you used any other method of tying them in, that you can compare to?

Thanks AlliDeSpain, tying in works.

Okay, so here is the first one completed and hope to have three more done by the end of the weekend and that will be the end of the current construction on our new vegetable garden beds. Later we want to build some cold frame tops and a new compost bin, but this will be it for now, and time to work on the actual garden. lol

We used old bamboo poles that still have a little life in them and plastic quick ties to attach everything. We cut the 16ft x 4ft panels in half and trimmed off a square or two. The two panels are overlapped and I'm not sure of the overall dimension, but I believe it is about 7ft x 7ft. The poles are hammered into the ground 18 inches and the braces are wedged between the bottom of the wooden raised bed and one of the side supports. That was as good as we could do and we'll see how they do this summer. They feel pretty sturdy. If there is a problem with them, we will still have the cattle panels to construct something different with, next year.

Looking forward to seeing them covered with plants. Looks like you've got a beautiful piece of property!

I would put another couple big bamboo stakes on the back that are more diagonal (like the ones on the front) to support it. Once that thing is covered with cucs/beans, etc., and you get a gust of wind.............well, you can imagine.
I'm really not trying to be a downer again! haha I've just got a degree from the college of hard knocks. :)

Thanks, we have a small 1/4 acre, but it fits what we need. I can’t imagine taking care of anything larger.

Catherine, Thanks, we got the second one done today, that is just to the right of the one in the photo. Still have two more to do in another bed for tomatoes. My son is building them and he suggested a 3rd bamboo stake diagonal in the middle which I vetoed, based on convenience of planting and working in the bed. And he wanted to put the diagonal braces on back and front as you are suggesting, but I had him put the trellis a foot away from the back of a four ft wide bed, so that doesn’t leave much room for that back support. I suppose we could do it with the foot of space. The one thing in our favor is the prevailing winds almost always come from the West and the diagonal supports are on the East side of the trellis. And these trellises are going to grow pole beans and cucumbers.

We’ve still got the tomato bed to do and I was planning on doing it the same way. I wonder how it would work if I put the trellis down the middle of the bed? I just hate to waste the space behind the trellised tomatoes which will be in complete shade.

That’s a cute expression, ‘a degree from the college of hard knocks’. lol

White trellis clips from Johnny's (not my favorite, but still good):
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6245-tomato-trellis-clips-100-count.aspx

These clips -- unless you find someone who will sell them wholesale -- are rather daunting in price, but worth it, as far as I'm concerned. They stood up well to sun and weather.

One of the pro's on GW's Tomato forum some years back mentioned a vendor who sells them in bulk for a great price (great if you're someone like me who's addicted to them: but having bought many over the years I didn't think I needed that many more). Anyway, I think the bulk price may have been a greenhouse or hydroponics vendor.

Just don't buy the green ones from Gardeners' Supply Company! They come unclipped.

N.B.: as I haven't purchased any for three years, I can't guarantee the quality of whatever anyone is currently selling!

Missingtheobvious, thanks for the links for the clips. I appreciate it. I have a small garden, so I wouldn’t need too many, so they wouldn’t be all that expensive I guess. I do wonder though about the hard plastic, if it causes any damage due to cutting into the stems, or if there is enough room for the stem/branches to expand without the hard plastic interfering? I have only used pantyhose ties. I cut them into strips and tie with that and what I like about it is that they are soft and expand as the plant grows. If I had 25 tomato plants I would probably want something quick and easy like these clips, though. This year my garden will be three times larger than it was, so I may be really wanting these clips by the time July comes along. [g]

I have pole bean trellises made out of galvanized electrical conduit. Granted, they aren't as wide as your structure.......maybe 3' wide........but I have used the metal stakes in the manner I described to anchor the trellis. It has worked well.

I know you've put alot of thought and effort into your structure and it's really aesthetically very pleasing, but I wouldn't want it to blow over in the wind and maybe pull all the plant roots out of the ground. I may be totally wrong........but that's what I'd do. But I never worry about aesthetics! haha I'm all-function.........and I know lots of people aren't like me.

As far as the question you asked about the bungee cords........I just really think you need more unyielding support for your trellis.

If you're getting tired of my ideas, just tell me to shut up. hahaha :)

I'm also using my kids' old swingset and it works great! In fact, if it broke, I'd go out and buy another one, just for the garden!

The front supports are attached around the horizontal bamboo and around the cattle panel. They made a big difference in how stable the structure feels.

First let me say, that I do think of function first, but aesthetics are probably more important to me than they are to most people. Sorry to say.

I am trying to follow your thinking about the green metal stakes. I’ve seen those before and maybe I even have a couple in a corner of the garage somewhere, but truthfully, it would not be a material I would want to use. It might be that once the trellises are full of plants, I could sneak those in behind the bamboo and not notice them. I’ll have to think about that.

Are you thinking that bamboo poles are not strong? Have you worked with them before? Or is it our construction technique that you think needs a little extra for strength? We were going to build A Frames originally but I changed my mind at the last minute for various reasons. Mainly because looking at the 4ft wide bed, I couldn’t see how that was going to work out well. I would have had to open the AFrame up from side to side and plant in the middle between it.

We had also thought about building with lumber and attaching the cattle panels to that, then anchoring them with rebar or pipe into the ground, but time got away from us and I was anxious to start planting and I had all those bamboo poles in the garage.

Thanks for the answer about the bungee cord, you’re probably right, I’ll just forget that idea. But I certainly don’t want a full trellis full of beans to come down on me, so I’ll try to think of something more I can do to make sure it’s not going to happen. Fire away if you think of another idea! We do still have two more to make, so if there is some suggestion for some different way we could do it, happy to hear it.

If you have the green metal posts at the bottom of your electrical conduit trellises, I can not really see them. Maybe they're less noticeable than I thought they would be. I'm going to have to search the garage and see if I have one to try out.

I'm very happy that you suggested it, now I won't be worrying about the trellis coming down when it is full of plants. Thanks a lot!!

Tomatoes, on the other hand: You'll want reinforced concrete drilled into the subterranean rock, LOL

Loribee, I was thinking this pair of trellises with beans/cucumbers on them will have less weight on it than the tomato trellises. We may even do them a little differently.

Alisande, my, doesn't that look great! Such healthy, well tended growth on your green beans. How do you keep that archway up? Is it reinforced with T posts?

While some do appear inside the arch, many grow on the outside, making picking at the top more of a challenge. A small, lightweight step stool helps late in the season, and not many beans escape my clutches.

The beans are Kentucky Wonder, BTW.

I guess I've just had a different experience with cattle panels. I made an arch like yours one year, and the beans just didn't seem to like to grow up it.

Then another year, I used them for support for the tomatoes, and that didn't work out either.

I LOVE concrete reinforcing wire and have used it for years for all my tomato cages and to line all my bean and cuc trellises. It's light weight (as compared to cattle panels), and you can easily cut it to any size. I bought a huge role of the stuff, but some stores (Menards) sells smaller panels of it.

I have to laugh when I think back when I first was trying to buy cattle panels from a Tractor supply store that is 11 miles from here. We don't have a pick up. So I was thinking of all sorts of silly ways to get those panels home............one of which was to anchor them to the top of my van. But then I pictured them starting to bounce on the way home, and actually lifting the van off the ground. hahaha Then I thought maybe my husband could drive his car right in front of mine, and we could put the panels half on each car and drive slowly home. haha
Fortunately, I found an employee at the store with a truck, who agreed to bring them out to me.

I do have the panels separating my main garden from one end that I use for winter squash.
So.....cattle panels and concrete reinforcing wire and green metal stakes and LOTS of bungee cords are some of my favorite things. hahaha

I did put 2 cattle panels in arch-shape, one in front of the other and covered it with a tarp and made a fort for my son. :)

Catherine, that is a funny story about wanting to pick up the cattle panels. I was a little intimidated trying to obtain them too. I had never seen one except in a photo and no one carried it near me, I had to drive 30mins to an Agway to find them. It was suggested to us that we could cut the panels ahead of time to get them home. So my son came with me with a pair of bolt cutters and we cut them in half and they fit on the top of our van perfectly. Four bungee cords and they never moved all the way home on the highway. It was a lot easier than I was expecting. We had six half panels up there too. And now I'm short one and need to wait for more to come in and drive back there again. But I don't think getting them home in one piece on the van would have worked.

Do you use bungee cords in the garden? And how do you use them?

I use lots of the really small bungee cords. I try to use the brighter colored ones so we can more easily find them in the Fall, when we're tearing down the garden.

I use them to tie the sides of the bean trellises to those green metal stakes. I use them to prop up the limbs of the tomatoes to their cages. I use them to gently prop up any way-ward growing pole bean vines, to the trellis. You name it, if it needs propping up, I use bungee cords. I just wish they lasted longer. They're usually good for several years though.
I also used them to connect the wire to the swingset, to hold the fencing that the cucs grow up. They are so easy to move around too, if you need to.

I use them everywhere .......in the chicken coop/run, on my golf cart (that I use to get around our property), etc.. Like I said earlier, I probably don't worry about aesthetics as much as I should. haha

Missingtheobvious, thanks, I think I will find training plants a lot faster and easier with those clips, I may try them.

dgc1, not sure what a fox grape is, I have table grapes and right now they are on an old metal screen house frame. I’m hoping to build a new wooden one in the Fall. I wonder if the arched panels will be strong enough to hold up the grapes when they are mature?

Of course, this assumes the TV woman knows what she's talking about. Sometimes that's a stretch. ;-)

Ok, well I do hope that is the case with the SVBM. We've had an unusually large number of birds in the yard. Robins seem to have nested nearby and I counted about 7 adolescents yesterday. Then a flock of starlings, and a pair of catbirds. They all seem to be very interested in the vegetable beds. Flying in and out of the beds with squash in them, so I am hoping they are finding bugs to eat.

I don't even have a feeder up, because I didn't want to attract squirrels. I do have a number of shrubs that fruit is developing on and I think they are here in anticipation of a feast. And I seem to remember reading that birds that are fruit eaters, also eat insects. So this has been an interesting development this year.