Vertical Gardening DIY Teepee
Vertical gardens may seem like a fad, but it is popular for good reason. Even when you have a good sized garden space to use, there are great benefits to growing your veggies off the ground. We’ve found that squash in particular does much better when it’s up off the ground. No rotten spots for us, please!
Learn more about the benefits of Vertical Garden in the book Vertical Vegetable Gardening by Chris McLaughlin.
It’s everywhere in the garden!
Usually, we are careful to plant our climbing and vining plants where they are close to the fence or trellis. We save bush forms for the middle of the garden. This year, however, a seed swap means that I got some mystery squash seeds which turned out to be huge vining plants. These plants are already as long as my husband is tall in some places.
Tomato cage + old fence post + baling wire = redneck trellis
We put up some temporary, makeshift vertical structures for the vine to climb but one might call it shabby. Even red neck. I wanted to make something simple but also a little better looking. So we set out to assemble a teepee structure that would support the weight of the heavy vines. No flimsy bamboo sticks here – we headed out to Lowe’s to pick up some quality stakes.
We tied the first three stakes, and then added the last three.
Inside with the home goods we found these sturdy stakes precut 1″x1/2″ and 8 feet tall. We bought the prepackaged bundle of six. Organizing three into a tripod form we first tied those three together. Then we added the other three stakes, evenly spaced in the gaps, and continued wrapping the rope around the tops to secure the stakes.
Helping to twine the tendrils
Squash vines have the ability to support themselves with these cool tendrils. They will actually respond to pressure when something touches them, and if you help them wrap around the stake and then each other, they will begin to twine around themselves.
In this case, we’d waited a little too long, and the extra weight of the already-developing fruit meant it was easier to tie these larger stems to the support. We will put a few strands of rope around the teepee structure at three different heights as well to give the vines an easier foothold to clamber their way to fresh air and freedom.
Don’t damage the fruit! Tie your vines firmly but with room to grow.
This DIY Vertical Garden Structure cost less than $25 and took only 15 minutes to assemble. If you have any climbing vines in your garden – peas, beans, squash, etc., you will definitely want to take advantage of this inexpensive but brilliant tutorial.
From inside looking up. Can’t wait for it to finish growing in!
If you want more ideas for your home and garden be sure to check out the Lowe’s Creative Inspirations magazine, website, Pinterest board and Facebook page to see what other Lowe’s Creators have come up with. Each month I’m given a general theme and a gift card for supplies to create useful content for my readers. Ideas and photos are completely original.
What would you grow vertically in your garden?
I just spent the last hour browsing your Blissfully domestic blog and found you here via UBC. I am not that good at gardening but last year I was able to grow tomatoes from those hanging pots.
When my boys were young I tried making them a bean teepee but it didn’t quite work out.
Container gardening can be a really easy way to try your hand at gardening. If ever decide to give it another shot I have to shamelessly plug my Backyard Farming on an Acre (more or Less) book which deals with a lot of small space gardening techniques. 🙂
I had never heard of this but now that we are in our new house and I wanted to do a small garden but we did not have a lot of room I will talk to David and see if he will help me and Charlie set us up a garden like this. Thanks for sharing it.
Many of the hybrid varieties are the “bush” form or non-vining and won’t grow up a trellis like this. Look for heirloom varieties that will vine and can be grown up a trellis or along a fence! That will save you a ton of room when working with a limited space. I HIGHLY recommend the book Vertical Gardening I linked to above – I know the author personally and she REALLY knows her stuff. When you don’t have a lot of land, vertical is the way to go without a doubt.
I had no idea squash plants were vining! I have some in my garden right no with no where to go… I will definitely be using this idea! Thanks 🙂
Some types of squash are vining and some are bush forms. The vining are perfect for growing up a relies or fence…so cool to watch them really cling to the structures you provide.
This looks like a cool idea. Thanks for sharing, and it is what I am about to do, too!
Great site. I love gardening. Glad to find you through UBC.
Cheryl – Thanks for the comment! If you have garden-themed posts on YOUR website you are welcome to link them up each Thursday on our Green Thumb Thursday linky! If you don’t – you are always welcome to contribute some gardening themed posts on Untrained Housewife at any time. We love them! 🙂
So simple, and so classic. I love it! Gonna have to try it out myself.
I love the tomato trellis. If I make one and plant it with flowering vines, it might be a great way to add privacy to my home’s backyard patio. Thanks!
I don’t thing I’ve saw this sort of thing in the shop.
I’ll have to get down the timber yard to get DIY’ing.
Stop me lawnmowing stuff up too!