I made this cause I was desperate for a trellis and too broke to buy one...lol....It dosent look like much now but last summer it was covered with morning glories and spanish flag and it was beautiful.. all it cost me was some wire, a few t posts and some yard waste..it held up in 60+MPH winds I had last summer so I must have done something right when I built it (S).... it helps delineate my side yard where my above ground pool is from the front yard and adds privacy when its covered ... I built one on the other side of the white arbor this spring the same way to make it look more balanced.. one of these years Ill have a privacy fence put up but untill then this will have to do

Very creative! What type of wire did you use?

just an 18 gauge you find on a roll at walmart or lowes...

Thanks

Great job, Kathleen, and so creative! Actually, I rather like the rustic look better than a fence there, but, after all, it's not my house!

I love this! You are right that it looks rustic. But I live in an old farmhouse in what is essentially a ghost town. An ornate and fussy look would not work for me at all. I do has some wrought and lacy pieces as focal points, but as a major structure, I need rustic.

This is a shot the little barn in my backyard. It is the oldest standing structure in our townsite. I think rustic is a pretty apt term! LOL

I have used a lot of white PVC trellis in areas of the yard only because wooden trellis does not withstand our weather and I needed something that was durable. It has a 'new' look that I am not thrilled about, but, it looks clean and if everythign that I use for arbor looks too rustic, then the whole place starts to look run-down rather than shabby and loved.

Jennie: I just revisited the cubit and found this thread. I love your rustic barn AND the beautiful peacock!

Angie, I love the peacock too. I must, because I have not had DH shoot them for trashing my hosta beds!! LOL
It has been very rainy here (uncommon for MT) and the grass is all merald green. As I was leaving for work I could see the peacock "Buddy" strolling across the lawn with his tail trailing behind. It was such a beautiful sight!

One of the best rustic trellises that I have seen in my travels. From an AHS convention in Texas. Made from cedar. I'll share a closeup pic as well as the landscape pic. Made by the homeowners.

I've been trying to get a bamboo (Fargesia rufa) to grow big enough to give me poles and stakes for the last 3 years!

I like your idea of nuisance saplings growing up through a hedge or brush.
If I had a tall bedge or brush, I would be out there planting maple seeds like a little squirrel!

Jennie.... well. a great barn .. .. with the lovely Buddy.. Glad you could over look their behavior with your hostas... and a wonderful rustic trellis.. I thought I'd show two I made for pots containing my dragon fruit cactuses..
I'd planted a dawn redwood [ from the dawn of time... only known in fossels till it was discovered in China back in the 40's ] it was planted some 35 years ago... at mothers/my house in north AL.. where it grew later became a very wet area due to a driveway to the back garage she had instaled in my absence .. it being a bit raised and catching water behind it... I'd lost a few of the lower branches on the 30' tree... so I pruned them ..and kept the wood for there two trellises and some other projects... it had been standing dead for a decade before pruining.... but the wood was fresh and hard as anything alive... it really being redwood... so i'm sure it will last a long time even with it's end stuck down in the dirt... this year as the tornados went through AL.. very near the house there... before it tore up Harvest AL ... the rest of the tree... broke off about a fot off the ground... so I'll have a bunch of bigger redwood to make something for her there.. I'd used a lot of redwood in making her house... all of the window caseings the windows were set into was 2 x 12 redwood and the greenhouse that ran across the entire south side of her solar home had all 2 x 6 redwood framing... which they say was good for 20 years as a greenhouse .. but it still is strong some 35 years later..
here are two of my city rustic trellises w/ dragon fruit.. one with a wwhite flesh in the fruit... the other with a red flesh inside... should have marked which is which... but I'd surely remember... one was bigger... ha ha ha since fall one threw off a 7' growth to it... [ sunnier window ] the other about a 3' growth.. s o which was which now... anyway...
the trellises are held together with plastic wire ties... good for a decade or more outside... if they are UV resistant

RickCorey

Bambusa oldhamii is a fast grower that will soon have larger diameter canes for your use, this one is also a clumping variety, and not a runner. Your current bamboo won't every obtain a larger diameter cane.

Thanks very much Jan! I'll look into Bambusa oldhamii.

Hmm,

The ABS website says Bambusa is a tropical and semi-tropical genus, and B. oldhamii's minimum temperature is 21 F. My AVERAGE winter low is 15-20 F, so I think that an average winter would kill the leaves. I'm not sure how often we would have a winter that killed the whole plant. And I'm pretty sure that a 55-foot tall hoop tunnel would be beyond my skills!

I'll think about a very sheltered spot, but it would break my heart to lose the whole plant every 5-10 years. Too bad, because even a young plant ought to have usable culms if the adult has 4" diameter ones! "Giant timber bamboo", in truth!

ABS defines their minimum temperature as "a one-time brief minimum temperature that can be tolerated with only leaf loss in well established plants on a calm night, ...".

RickCorey

Your current bamboo is perfect for making tomato or veggie supports for the garden as well as vining flowers like clems, morning glories, ivy (provided the ivy is grown in pots). With the look of bamboo it just adds that much more to the overall look.

Jan

I'm still hoping for that - if I give it more soil space and keep watering it in the dry season, and adding compost and a little fertilizer. I gave it hardly any fertilizer this year, but I think the leaves aren't as dark a green as last year.

Loved these pics & reading this. I discovered rolled wire this year too. The kind I found is plastic-coated (green.) I've used the wire *as* trellis, between potting bench roof support posts, and up front porch posts for a moonflower vine. (Which worked, BTW, right there where it can be enjoyed first thing in the morning, last in the evening - not out in the back 40 where nobody goes when the flowers are open.) I wouldn't put a perennial vine there, that was awesome, I'll be doing it up every post if the seeds sprout at each one. Will take pics next year that show the wire. I've always used 30-lb. fishing line for this, but the wire is stronger and easier to deal with.

If rustic also means repurposed, I've used some pieces from a broken cart as trellises, and an oak branch. I figure whenever the branch rots out, the vine can just be 'leaned' on a new one, or that part can just be removed as cuttings to gift to others. A little Monstera plant came with a piece of board the roots were already attached to.

These are house plants, but the trellises are rustic.
This was a shelf, DH bent it into a tube. Philodendron 'Micans.'


Aerial roots of Philodendron scandens attached to oak branch.


The whole pot with a 'side' of the broken cart and oak branch - wired together for stability in high winds.


Mixed philos in bent-shelf tube trellis thingie.


Monstera in love with this board.

Reading this thread with great interest --- my trellis was recently taken out at the base by high winds and I will be researching a replacement to rebuild come spring. The destroyed trellis (which of course I cannot locate a photo of) was 4 stout cedar branches with the natural curving ends intertwined at the top forming an arch. Cross pieces were likewise cedar in a random pattern. It looked very cool when new, but was quickly covered by the honeysuckle and jasmine on either end, so I am seeing that the actual cross pattern is not as important as the basic form. I will likely go with something similar but am open to ideas.

Nice work blkraven2. You have a great eye.