40 Smart Trellis Ideas to Take Your Garden to New Heights
Help your garden look its best with these stylish and clever trellis ideas!
Whether you grow mostly vegetables, mostly flowers, or a mix of both, chances are good you've wanted to put some vining plants into the mix—and that means adding a trellis to the gardenscape.
Are you growing cucumbers or squash in the vegetable patch? Have you always dreamed of vining roses climbing over an arbor, or clematis wending its way around a sunny spot in the back? You'll need a trellis.
A trellis—essentially the name for any structure which supports plants—can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. The best trellises, of course, fit the overall look and design of the yard they're in. And just like the plants you grow and the garden designs you use, the trellis you decide to add to your garden says a lot about who you are.
Broadly speaking, there are three main kinds of trellises. A panel trellis is a flat structure, either free standing or attached to a wall, that allows plants to climb up it. An obelisk trellis is a free-standing structure that is typically (but not always) pyramid-shaped, that can be placed over a particular plant or plants in the middle of a garden. And an arch is, of course, a free-standing structure that arches over a space as the plants climb overhead. Arbors and pergolas are both arches, but an arch can also be smaller, and can be a freestanding structure in a garden as well.
You can purchase trellises of all sorts, of course, but they're also easy to build. It can be much more fun to create your own trellis to suit your garden's particular needs, whether that's as simple as lashing a few dried branches together to keep the beans off the ground, to something much more beautiful and fun to look at.
The best trellises add more than practicality to a garden space; they become an interesting focal point all their own.
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Panel: Tiered Garden Bed with Lattice Trellis
This smart-looking raised-bed planter lets you grow beans, tomatoes, or other vining plants along the top back, where the trellis keeps them up, while still having space for other veggies or even flowers!
Get the Tutorial from Anika's DIY Life.
Obelisk: Wooden Garden Trellis
This cheery obelisk-style trellis is wrapped in chicken wire to make it extra easy for vining plants (like the watermelon plant on there) to hang on. But it's the flat top that really gets our attention! Most obelisks have a pointed top. This one gives you space to add a potted plant on the top level—genius!
Get the tutorial at Empress of Dirt.
Panel: V-Shaped Fence Trellis
If you have a privacy fence or other area that could use a little greenery, consider building this V-shaped panel trellis. The widening form allows vines to spread out as they get taller, and it looks beautiful even before it's covered over!
Get the tutorial at The Handyman's Daughter.
Arch: Cottage Arbor Trellis
This ever-so-classic garden arch makes for an inviting entrance to your home or backyard, but training climbing roses over it? Stunning.
Panel: Tall Planter Box with Trellis
This beautiful, sturdy raised bed / trellis has two features that we really admire. First: it's tall enough that gardeners who don't love crouching and bending all the time can still grow beautiful, or tasty (or both!) plants. Second: the all-wood trellis is tall enough that flowering vines or edibles, like beans or roses, have a lot of room to grow.
Get the tutorial from Jen Woodhouse.
Panel: Lattice Fence Trellis
With its large holes, a lattice fence doesn't tend to offer much privacy—until you start training some morning glories or clematis over it. Then you've got a beautiful looking screen that can offer semi-privacy while also helping to grow something!
Panel: Raised Bed with Pergola Style Trellis
The central position of this trellis is super smart, as it gives gardeners twice as much room to grow vining plants. And the pergola-style top is extra beautiful! A section of sturdy galvanized wire fencing acts as the actual trellis, and gives the vines plenty to cling to.
Get the tutorial at The Inspired Workshop.
Panel: Portable Garden Trellis
If you're only looking to keep a few veggies off the ground while they're growing—and don't want a permanent or year-round structure, this is a great design! The freestanding trellis can be set up as soon as the plants are tall enough to need it, and then stored away right after harvest.
Get the tutorial at Empress of Dirt.
Obelisk: Old Grapevine Branches Trellis
One of the easiest things you can do is to fashion a trellis out of materials you already have on hand. Here, some old, thicker vining branches have been woven together using some thinner vines, then allowed to dry.
This makes a great light trellis for small vines like sweet pea.
Obelisk: Brightly Painted Garden Trellises
Obelisk style trellises can be as simple as a few branches of bamboo or grapevine lashed together, or they can be highly decorative, drawing as much attention as the plants you're growing. We love the idea of building several and painting them each a different, vibrant color! It reminds us of how we like to gussy up our terra cotta flowerpots!
Panel: Vintage Ladder Trellis
Ivy, Virginia creeper, and other vining plants don't need much encouragement, especially during the growing season.
You can attach a vintage ladder to your outdoor wall or shed—either leaning and attached just at the top, or securely at the top and bottom— and then direct a few of the tendrils to start making their way up.
Panel: Salvaged Window Trellis
A salvaged window proves the perfect support for a climbing vine, such as star jasmine.
Remove the glass panes and hang on a wall or rest on your potting shed worktable.
Panel: DIY Moveable Container Plant Trellis
Ideal for vining vegetables, such as these cucumbers, this container garden trellis idea lets you grow beans, tomatoes, or other "tall" plant veggies without having to get them in the ground.
You can also move the plant into a greenhouse or indoors during cold snaps, or to avoid hungry nighttime critters.
Obelisk: DIY Branches-and-Twine Trellis
We love the rustic look of sweet peas scrambling up cut saplings, such as poplar or birch, tied with twine. Forage large sticks from your garden, then lash together in casual fashion at the top.
This won't hold heavy plants, but it's fine for annuals such as sweet peas or morning glories.
Panel: Vintage Fence Trellis
Lean a vintage fence piece against your house for a quick, easy solution for climbing plants. Shop flea markets for the best finds.
Arch: DIY Pergola Trellis
Pergolas can be used not only as a support structure for vines such as clematis, but they also provide shade.
Before building, call your local utilities to mark the location of underground lines because you'll need to sink the posts at least one-quarter their heights.
Get the tutorial at A Piece of Rainbow.
Panel: T-Post Trellis
This sweet, rustic little trellis can be made from posts, poplar twigs, and twine, though you can use zip ties, too. Use bigger branches on the bottom and smaller ones up top, alternating the thick ends on each row.
Get the tutorial at Chicken Scratch NY.
Panel: Honeycomb Trellis
Lovely in itself, this hexagon-shaped honeycomb trellis will add serious zing to your property.
Use a miter saw to make the hexagonal cuts, then mount the trellis onto a fence, making sure it screws into all the horizontal supports.
Get the tutorial at Mama Needs a Project.
Panel: Plastic Netting Trellis
For a simple vegetable trellis that will last for a few seasons, attach plastic netting, also known as poultry netting to two pound-in metal garden stakes. You're done in a few minutes!
Panel: Espaliered Trees as a Trellis
Espalier is a form of pruning that allows trees to grow flat against a wall or in a line.
Though it's not strictly a "trellis," espalier does provide a fence-like appearance for privacy—though this technique does take time and effort to achieve.
Get espalier tips from Oregon State University.
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