Obelisk trellises made out of livestock panel fencing

Finally got my brother to make some tall obelisk trellises for me. They are about 8 feet tall. Am planning on using them for passion flower vines and perhaps morning glory vines. Am hoping any vine that I plant in the middle of each will be more 'contained' - meaning easier to keep winding in any stray tendrils :o) I have a bad habit of letting my vines run rampant...and they literally climb up into trees over the fence and crawl across my lawn.

Here are four of them standing together by my back porch eave.

~ Cat

Another photo of one obelisk trellis next to my backyard fence. That's a yellow morning glory vine and somewhere buried under that is a chalice vine - both are running rampant in the background!

~ Cat

Those are fantastic Cat! How did your brother make them and what did he make them with? Did he solder them? I wish my vines would even *think* about running wild here, I have to beg and bribe them to grow normally Lol. I can't wait to see them engulfed in beautiful vines soon!

The livestock panel fencing is sold in panels that are 16 feet long by 52 inches wide. He just used bolt cutters to make them 8 feet long then bent them over into the triangular shape and tack welded the sides together :o)

He's made other trellises over the years for me using these livestock panel fencing. One of my favorites is a stairway arch :o)

This is what the livestock panel fencing looks like. It is sold at our local farm and ranch type stores like McCoys and Tractor Supply. The price is very reasonable...only $15.99 each...and they do last for years and years. Some of mine as five years old and we use these fence panels on the corrals back at the ranch...those have been in place for decades. They are galvanized steel so they don't rust and fall apart like many of the ready made trellises.

~ Cat

Oh Wow this is a great idea and thanks for posting it.
I wonder if I don't have a welder handy if I could tie them together with the heavy wire they use for lathe?

I am glad they don't rust, everything rusts here that you buy for the garden like this at the garden centers.

I used to live in the Valley, I miss it.

Shella...

Am assuming you can tie them together will a heavy gauge wire or perhaps lots of those plastic ties...or even using a thinner wire and sewing it around both sides from top to bottom...sort of what a spiral notebook wire does.

Yeah...I got tired of purchasing those green painted aluminum trellises that are made of hollow pipes...those things didn't last a year out here!

Hope you are able to make it back to the valley for a visit. The fall season (mainly October-December) is our best butterfly season.

~ Cat

Thanks for the info Cat! I want to learn more about Butterflies! I am just getting my garden established and doing the hardcaping etc, so that is what my attention is on right now while the weather is still cool here.

A fellow Florida Dger really knows alot about butterflies he just posted some great photos and thread with something interesting happening .....thought you would be interested. Hope to visit again someday, and I will be sure and come in the fall!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/803746/#new
Scroll down and look for Artcons posts.

Shella,

Thanks...I've seen Art's postings...always great with a camera. Those Atala and GF photos are quite unique!!!

I always kid about having coonties in my yard waiting for a stray Atala to find them. It's so good to see so many of them on the coonties in his yard.

~ Cat

Really nice, Cat. You can have those all over the yard and not take up much space at all! A vine lovers dream. :~)
I KNEW I was missing out, not having any brothers! LOL

....Hey Cat, your brother isnt gonna be in San Antonio any time soon is he?
LOL.....just kidding. Im gonna try my hand at that cuz I was looking for something similar but the cost was ridiculious........thanks for the idea.

Too funny Anaid! But yes...the price of a livestock panel fence is only $15 or $16 at McCoys. He made two trellises out of one panel. When I used to just clip them into 16 foot lengths that were three squares wide I would make three arch type trellises out of them.

Yes, Pudgy

I really like the idea of getting vines to grow up instead of across...like across my fence, across the trees, across the yard, across to the neighbor's!!! :o) Yeah, my brother is great...am glad he's into conservation too so he puts up with all my ideas - well only as far as my own yard goes.

Since we got the windmill working back at the ranch and he re-dug the pond and smoothed out the berms I kept trying to talk him into digging a 2 to 3 foot trench around one of the trees that is close to the pond so the pond water would flow around it...I wanted an island of sorts to be formed. He didn't go for it...but hey, there's still next weekend to try again!

Here's a photo of a stairway arch he made for me a few years ago. This one get full engulfed by a passionflower vine...which I cut back to about four feet every other year.

~ Cat

This message was edited Jan 18, 2008 7:00 PM

He digs ponds too??? Boy, I am with Anaid! We need that man to start travelling, I say when he leaves Anaids house he just hops a plane to California. LOL
That ladder trellis is really cool, bet it looks great with the passionvine on it. Your island idea has merit, good luck on selling it this weekend, and post a pic of the results. ;~)
Donna

Brrrr...it's been down in the low 40's for the past couple of days...the news report says it feels like 36 degrees?! Hey, cold is cold to me! We rarely get cold spells out here...anything below 70 is considered a cool front for us...anything below 60 is freezing for me!!!! BRRRRR!!! Don't know how ya'll up north can bear the freezing temps...I really hate to lose my plants to bad weather conditions.

On a funny note...I was out doing spot checks on the cold storage warehouses for our port...my partner and I had to walk inside to check merchandise - the temperatures are below freezing in those places!!! Oooh...it felt so good to get back outside where we could warm up in the 40 degree weather :o)

~ Cat

LOL, so pretty much anytime we think our weather is cold, we should crawl in the freezer to appreciate it. HA
Probably will be the last time you think 40 is warm. LOL

I made some too, but not so tall, for my morning glorys .. the thing is, you have to go out every day, sometimes twice a day and remind the vines that they are suppose to be climbing AROUND the trellis and not just straight up! I didn't weld mine, I just twist tied them and in some cases bent the wire around.

X

Good going X :o)

I tried using tomato cages stuck into large pots but the vines got too heavy. Then again, am quite bad at watering potted plants...I must plant them into the ground so the irrigation system will take care of them...and of course, add to their tendancy to run rampant :o) Am not good at cutting vines back either...and the tomato cages were just too small for some of those wandering vines.

I commend you on your morning glories...they are truly lovely flowers. I always enjoy looking and reading EmmaGrace's posts on all those she hybridizes.

I find them very hard to contain...guess that's why I only grow the one species, ipomoea ochracea, and let that take over the west side of my yard :o)

~ Cat

How timely Cat!
Wayne and I were just discussing using that very material. They turned out very nice! I need support like that for the Hawaiin Wood Rose vine...

Lol .. RJ, your wood rose will eat that in a heartbeat no matter how tall it is! Have you seen Edric's photos of his? Here is the real scary one:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/132287/

Scroll down to see them all.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/137342/

Very reminiscent of kudzu .. maybe you ought to rethink growing one .. being in zone 9?

X

ps the chalice bud is getting bigger .. slowly but surely .. the suspense is killing me.

X....great photos of Audrey IV !!! ROLF!!!

Chalice vine in zone 8a...doesn't seem too different from our zone 9. I've seen them cover two sides of a cyclone fence out here. One lady had it growing in the corner of her yard...it started growing and she trailed it over the fence top letting it travel a good 60 feet on each side...it was still growing last I saw it...which was about four years ago. She used to let folks take cuttings of it because it was huge.

~ Cat

I've got my Chalice Vine in a pot. No way would I put it in the ground .. I have a huge respect for hardy vines.

X

LOL!! I know..I think I'm becoming afraid of that vine! It's going to eat anything. I just hacked huge portions off of the giant castor bean tree. The vines are very thick, leaves huge and very heavy. Still, I left the other half of the vine up by the green house, and I need something! I noticed the older the vine gets, the more cold tolerant it's become too.

Cat, that's a neat idea. I've used the cow panels for trellis's also, but I like the way he made those. you laid the 8 foot panels down and bent them into a triangle shape. That had to of been hard.

I have some livestock panels still out back from when we pulled down an old goat pen.

are you going to stake them to the ground so they don't blow over int he wind?

I'd have to do that. but that's such a neat idea, I would imagine there would benothing left visable when the plant took over.

kathy

Here is a picture of one of my livestock panel trellis in a pot . early spring.

and in the fall

They are perfect for clematis.

Geesh! You Texans can really grow some vines!!

If I make a trellis like that will mine grow as well?? I wish!

mexican flame vine

Those vines are georgious. What's growing in the pot in the first picture? That also looks like field fencing instead of livestock panels. Which is probably alot easier to work with LOL. I have some of that also, what a neat idea.

Have you got it fascined to the pot somehow so it doesn't fall over?

I can't get over that georgious vine though.

You can even put it around an unused basketball pole.

Cool, I got a electric line pole in my front yard, I always hated it there, wonder if I could put some around the bottom of it to start out some mornging glories on. Think i'd get in trouble LOL I've been wanting to grow some kind of vine up it.

Kathy _ann , the plant in the pot is a Rangoon creeper. I use re-bar to secure them.

This message was edited Jan 22, 2008 6:58 PM

Kathy Ann, my son climbs the poles to repair lines, and begs you, please don't plant vines and flowers on the poles. He gets stung, stuck with stickers and so on when he has to climb a pole with plantings. It is very dangerous for them. He has also had transformers short out from vines pulling down wires. Tks!

your rangoon looks wonderful! I see you grow it in a pot. Mine is in a pot too and has never bloomed me in the 2 or so yrs I have had it. What's your secret?
Donna

PudgyMudpies, sun and bloom booster.

Donna, I also use Hibiscus Fertilizer by Nutri-star, so if you have hibiscus too..they all love it. If it helps- Rangoons only bloom on new growth. Here's the info on the nutri-star

HIBISCUS ANALYSIS 10-4-12
Total Nitrogen (N) ............................... 10.00%
Available Phosphate (P205) ................. 4.00%
Soluble Potash (K20) .......................... 12.00%
Magnesium (Mg) ................................ 3.10%
Sulfur (S) ............................................ 3.80%
Copper (Cu) ....................................... 0.05%
Iron (Fe) ............................................ 4.30%
Manganese (Mn) ................................ 0.13%
Zinc (Zn) ............................................ 0.13%
For Tropical and Perenial Hibiscus


This message was edited Jan 22, 2008 8:20 PM

Thanks Randy, ignore that part of my dmail. LOL I really hope that is not a current picture, I am already jealous of your zone pocket, would really hate to add to it. LOL I will write this down and see what I can find to match it when I go to Lowes next time. Thank you too Placenciarita. :~)

LOL...no ..Rangoons definately prefer the warmer weather. I will be taking all of last years leaves/branches from the main vine trunk..that is why it blooms so profusely..it all grows back with a vengeance.

Wow Plancencia - those are lovely indeed! That rangoon creeper is a looker! One of our local nurseries has a huge one covering the front wall of their building...it is such a pretty vine...if it were a larval host I would have planted one too but alas...it's hard to say no sometimes...but I must force myself.

I can never get clematis to thrive out here...I gave up on that one. MFV usually runs rampant :o)

Kathy_ann - my brother's barn had a raised concrete driveway leading to it...so we placed the fence panel over that and went along the edge stepping down on it bend it a bit...from there it was easier to flop it back onto the driveway and bend the whole section over. The stainless gauge wire is about 1/4" thick...takes me forever to saw through it with a dremmel tool...a tad easier with bolt cutters - but tiring! It is a breeze to cut with the welder's blow torch!!!

I don't need to stake them down here as the wind is rarely strong enough to blow them over...but I did have a Mexican Flame vine that got too big and too heavy - I had to stake it down with some re-bar pipes.

Am so thrilled to see everyone making use of livestock fencing. We have a softer more pliable type of fencing but some of the vines pull it down...so I stick with the sturdier fence panels.

~ Cat

I am getting out my left over cattle wire from my greenhouse,, and buying rebar.. to put on my property line.
Now, come on spring.
Elaine

I've stolen the idea and worked out a simple approach to make some very tall pieces quite easily, with a length of 2x4 and some long (14") zip straps ( those thin, tough plastic straps where you feed one end through the opening in the other and pull through). You'll need a regular hammer, some pliers and garden snips.

Lay the fencing on a flat area. Put the 2x4 on top of the fencing, straigh along one vertical wire that's in from the edge, 1/3 of the way. Secure the 2x4 (temporarily) to the fencing close to both ends, using zip straps --pull them tight, and get them around at least 2 vertical wires. Next, stand on the fence, toes up on the wood (on the 2/3 side of the fencing) and bend the fencing up around the 2x4 by hitting each wire of the fence with a hammer against the wood. Takes a couple minutes, moving from one end to the other, but you get a nice consistent angle into the fencing this way. When you get the whole length bent straight up, snip the zip-straps off and discard them. Move the 2x4 to the other side of the fencing and use a couple more zip-straps to secure it there in the same way. Repeat the bending process. Again snip off the zip straps and discard. Set the wood aside, you're done with it. You'll have a sort of "square-U" shape length of fencing now. Then starting about 6" from one end, loop a long zip-strap in a figure-8 around where vertical and horizontal wires, and pull it tight. Make sure you get both a horizontal and a vertical wire each time to prevent the joined edges of the fence from shifting against each other. Do this every 12" or so. Pull the straps really tight each time, using the pliers.

You will end up with a very sturdy triangular column this way, very quickly.

You can then stake it to the ground, or zip-strap it to a post or other support. I clipped some very tall one right to my eaves

Your choice whether to plant the plant first and put the obelisk over it, or plant the plants outside of the column. Inside allows you to trim the base with a weed whacker without much worry.

I'll post some pics soon.