Trellises and arbors are garden structures designed to provide vertical support for climbers, vines, and other upright-growing plants. They’re available in a variety of different materials, sizes, and designs, from simple jute or nylon netting creations, to complex, hefty wood and metal structures. Whether your landscape is filled with flowering ornamentals or geared more toward growing vegetables, incorporating an arbor or trellis into your garden design enhances both its beauty and functionality. This article focuses on the type of ready-made trellises available at most garden centers or hardware stores. With so many materials and styles to choose from, deciding which to purchase might feel daunting, but let’s dive right in and figure out what’s best for your garden. See more: How to Choose a Structure for Vining Plants.
Why would you want to add an arbor or trellis to your garden?
The answer is simple: you currently have a plant that is in desperate need of support to reach its full potential. Or you want to grow such a plant soon. Maybe you’ve always loved flowering vines but don’t know where to put one because you don’t have a fence to grow them on, or you’ve suddenly decided you want to delve into the world of climbing roses. Another often overlooked reason is that you’ve totally run out of space in your edible garden, and you still long to grow more tasty vegetables. Trellises and arbors to the rescue, every time.
The benefits of adding a trellis or arbor to your garden
Support
All climbing plants need something to wrap around, cling to, or lean on to achieve their mature height, whether they’re twiners (e.g., pole beans, black-eyed Susan vines, or wisteria, to name just three) or tendril climbers (like passion vines or sweet peas). A climbing rose doesn’t twine or have tendrils, but it does need structural support to provide stability for its long arching canes and to allow it to reach its full flower-filled upright potential.
Maximizing space
If every square inch of soil in your garden is full, there’s nowhere left to grow but up. In a crowded vegetable garden, a trellis or arbor maximizes vertical space. Training cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, and squash upward frees up valuable space to grow more earthbound vegetables. A city gardener wishing for more flower-growing space can make the most of their tiny backyard by creating a vertical masterpiece of vibrant blooms using a well-placed trellis, covered with colorful clematis vines.
Improved air circulation and disease prevention
Fungal issues affect many types of plants, and fungi thrive in moist, still, stagnant conditions where poor air circulation encourages spore dispersal and fungal development. A trellis enables fungal-prone plants to reach and grow upward, allowing air to move freely around their stems and foliage, minimizing the risk of fungal problems. Moving air also helps deter pests by reducing insect hiding places and helping to prevent those garden foes from settling in to lay eggs and multiply.
Keeps veggies clean, pest-free, more productive, and easier to harvest
In the vegetable patch, trellis-trained tomatoes, squash, peas, cucumbers, and beans can be kept off the ground, out of reach of slugs, snails, and sow bugs, as well as gophers venturing above ground for a bite to eat. Growing your vegetables vertically makes it easier to monitor for pests and to nip potential problems in the bud. It also increases productivity, since trellised plants can receive more sunlight and better air circulation. Growing edibles vertically makes for easier harvesting, keeping veggies visible and easy to reach.
Aesthetic appeal
Even without any plants clambering through it, an arbor or trellis adds height, dimension, charm, and visual interest to your garden. These structures can enclose a space for privacy, define a garden room or entryway, create a focal point, or gracefully facilitate a transition between different garden spaces. Add a vigorous evergreen vine to your trellis, and you’ve got coverage for an unsightly view, or screening just as effective as any hedge.
Factors to consider before purchasing an arbor or trellis
The best trellis for your garden depends on a few key factors:
- Think of eye appeal, choosing one that blends with your garden’s decor and that you find pleasing.
- Pay attention to the size, durability, and strength of the plant you plan to grow, and its lifespan and requirements. For example, a climbing rose (Rosa spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9) is long-lived, requiring a long-lasting, sturdy, strong trellis. Vigorous wisteria (Wisteria spp. and cvs., Zones 4–9) will need an even stronger support.
- Avoid buying short, flimsy plastic, wood, or vinyl trellises, as they often come tumbling down as hearty perennial plants reach maturity.
- If you’re hoping to grow fragrant annual sweet peas (Lathyrus odorata and cvs., annual) just once, a trellis made of lightweight nylon or jute netting works fine.
- Budget and lifespan are worth considering. Inexpensive plastic trellises might only last one season; thin, hollow-tube metal trellises (which can be surprisingly expensive) rust and often break after barely a year or two; affordable wattle or willow trellises last a few years, with vinyl (varying price points) usually lasting longer, and cedar or redwood options lasting longer still. But even somewhat pricy wood trellises might need replacing after 10 to 12 years, depending on your climate.
Full disclosure: I have one 6-year-old willow trellis barely clinging to life; one 10-year-old, hollow-tube metal arbor currently held together with rebar and wire; and a crumbling redwood fan trellis left behind by one of my grown kids. I also own over a dozen assorted solid steel trellises and arbors—the first one brought home over 22 years ago and still looking wonderful! Made by NorCal’s very own Artisan Trellis, these beauties come out on top every time for durability, eye appeal, strength, and versatility. They are the perfect choice for enhancing any space, from a formal rose garden to the most humble veggie patch. Rugged, sturdy, beautiful, well-priced, and built to last a lifetime—what more can you ask for from a utilitarian garden structure?
To discuss these trellising ideas or ask other gardening questions, chat with the author on the Gardening Answers forum.
To read more on Pacific Northwest gardening, go here.
Photos: Fionuala Campion
—Fionuala Campion is the owner and manager of Cottage Gardens of Petaluma, in Petaluma, California.
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