I've read that cucumber vines can grow up to 5 feet long. I'm a big fan of vertical gardening because you get more bang for you buck. You can plant more plants in the same square footage since they are going to grow vertically versus sprawling on the ground. As a bonus, when you trellis your cucumber plant there won't be any cucumbers lying on the ground where the bugs and water can get to them. I looked around Home Depot for a pre made trellis but they really didn't have anything like I was envisioning so naturally I hopped onto Pinterest to get my creative juices flowing. I've seen large squash arches which got me thinking about doing the same thing on a smaller scale. I purchased a roll of Galvanized Steel Welded Wire. It is 4 feet wide and the roll is 50 feet long. It was only $34.77 a roll and I know that 50 feet is a large amount but I have a couple of other projects in mind for the wire. I made the arch and used trellis clips to begin training my cucumber plants. The plants are placed on both sides of the arch and are about a foot long now. We have a couple of cukes growing on each vine! Since I love to cram plants together and maximize my gardening space, I also have a rows of lettuce and spinach growing underneath the arch. This will be perfect when the cukes begin to cover the trellis and give the lettuce some shade during all of the heat.
Total Project Cost: $6.45
For this project you will need:
Total Project Cost: $6.45
For this project you will need:
- 3 feet by 8 feet of welded wire
- Bolt cutters for 14 gauge wire
- Heavy duty staple gun and T50 staples
- 5 foot wooden garden stake
- Hand Saw
- Snip the wire to the appropriate size. I recommend leaving the pokey ends a little longer than you need them and then bending them over so that the sharp end isn't exposed on your finished product. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and I didn't do this so I will be taking old pieces of a rubber hose and sticking it onto any points that stick out.
- Cut the garden stake in 4 equal parts which would be 15 inches long.
- Position stakes on the inner curve of the arch. Let the stake stick out about 7 inches past the bottom of the trellis because this portion of the stake will be in the ground.
- Staple all four stakes to all four corners of the arch.
- Place arch into raised bed and drive stakes into the dirt.