Homemade Cedar Trellises

I’m big into using natural materials to make functional features in the garden. Here in Texas, cedar is easy to come by. We’ve used it to make cedar-slice pathways and mulched woodland pathways. We’ve also used it to make log feeders for birds. The latest projects are our cedar trellises.

What people here call cedar is actually Ashe Juniper, which is native to Texas. Ashe Juniper is a great wildlife tree (very important for many birds and a host plant for Juniper Hairstreaks), but its habits don’t appeal to some people. Because it readily establishes in overgrazed or disturbed lands, many ranchers don’t like it, and because its pollen triggers winter allergies for some folks, they don’t care for it, either. But as a wildlife lover, I love Ashe Juniper. As a bonus to others not caring for it, however, the wood is available for many a project because so many folks try to clear the trees off their land. And then they do it again when the trees grow back.

I wanted a self-standing trellis to give my dewberry a place to grow. For a long time, I let the dewberry create a bramble patch, but it felt too limiting — I wanted to be able to plant other plants in the same area. You can see here that I’ve cleared the surrounding area of bramble — now I just need to add new shade-loving natives.

This trellis lets the dewberry grow up instead of out, and now I can control where I want the dewberry to grow.

Made of local cedar, the trellis fits well into the natural settings I’m trying to create. That’s a Rock Rose, or Pavonia, in bloom in back.

To make the tripod, we simply cut 1″- to 2″-diameter cedar posts to the size we wanted, and then used wire of a flexible enough gauge to tie the pieces together. A tight twist using pliers keeps everything secure. It’s so easy a project that one person can build it in an hour or two.

In the backyard, we added another tripod trellis.

This one will be a support structure for our native Passiflora lutea. The vine is still a wee baby, because the dogs kept breaking it, but ever faithfully it keeps trying to grow. Now it is protected by the trellis, so it should be able to grow safely.

Elsewhere on our property, we have another type of cedar trellis, ladder-style. It looks great against the rock walls of our house.

We used 2-3″ posts for this one and nails instead of wire. Despite its simplicity, it was harder than it looks to make it. We pre-drilled holes just to get the nails to go through, but it still took a lot of determination. My husband was in a bad mood that day as a result. As an alternative, just use the flexible wire again.

This trellis will be for the Berlandier’s Trumpet, which also suffered a bit from the dogs until we provided the trellis as protection. At least I think that’s Berlandier’s Trumpet — it is still so small! But that’s what I recall planting there.

We made another one for the front yard. I’m still trying to get a vine established there. This time, I’ll go for Crossvine, me thinks. Nothing else has been happy, but Crossvine can handle the shade.

To show you a full vine on a trellis of this type, check out this lovely one at the Wildflower Center. Theirs is a little fancier.

Natural trellises — love, love, love!