Great ideas with good instructions! Thanks everyone for sharing!

This year for sure. I hope.

Are cattle panels made with solid-core wire? I ask because someone locally swears they are hollow-core.

They are solid. I know this because we cut them to size and the panel metal is solid.

I have 2 in my yard. Last year I used 2 metal t posts 6' tall for each side and zip tied them to the wire. That puppy was going nowhere!!! This year I used the outside of the raised bed to brace the wire over the propane tank and used a 4' t post for the other side with a zip tie. It held perfectly. I had 1 tomato, 2 watermelon and 2 Butternut squashes on one side and 2 tomatoes and 2 pumpkins on the other side. I was surprised to find that the 9" pumpkins didn't need any support!

Meri, I grew some big birdhouse gourds (those things are really heavy when they're green!) on my "hoop trellis" a couple of years ago... the gourds didn't need any support, but the trellis did

Thank you for the info about a cattle guard arch. Could someone please let me know if the arch would support roses? Is there a way to make sure the in-ground support is strong? I am doing this on my own and am not much of a handi-woman, but I want to give it a try.

The cattle panel fencing will last a long time and will support roses and even heavier plants. It is very strong! I use the chain-link fencing poles now to mount it to instead of wood posts. (The wood posts rot too quickly in my area.)

I've also seen a lovely fence of cattle panels. They put 4x4 posts in the ground that had been routed down the inside edges, put routed 1x2's across the top and bottom edges so the cattle panels was trimmed on all sides. I'm looking forward to doing my road frontage - I have to wait for funds since that is nearly 1/2 mile long. I'd like to have it high enough off the ground to let the gopher tortoises back in.

I remember when we lived in Newberry, FL, had 2.5 acres and were putting in raised food beds. We ran across what looked like an abandoned tortoise hole and filled it in so the horses wouldn't step in it. A couple of months later, a tortoise showed up on the other side of our neighbor's fence. We raised the bottom of the horse fencing and the tortoise came right on in, trucking for his hole that was no longer there. He got to where it used to be - no hole - he turned 360 degrees looking at everything, stopped and stared at where the hole should be. We felt so bad, Steve went into the greenhouse and got a shovel and dug down a couple feet to the tunnel. Happy turtle went right on down, cleaned out the entrance and settled back in. Apparently when our neighbor was repairing the old fence the tortoise was out shopping for greens in his yard and got trapped over there. The gopher tortoises are a keystone species and their abandoned holes are often taken over by things like burrowing owls, and other wildlife. As such they are a protected species.

I've thinking about cattle panels to build a hoop house. How wide would the base be using one 16' panel that was tall enough to stand upright in?

RickM, for 6 ft high sides, it would leave you <4 ft since some of the width would be taken up by the arch. You could put 2 or 3 layers of concrete block and put the sides in the holes of the blocks. That would give you another 3 to 4 ft in width with 6 ft height, more if it is arched. Would be lower on the sides and higher in the center.

3 panels, 4 T post each.. a bit of a bend makes a lovely tunnel. Still trying to fill the space but truly love it.
2nd photo ~ People caught leaving after having stopped to check it out.