Gardening – Berry Trellis

We have a patch of raspberries and blackberries in Linda’s Serenity Garden. The bushes have been in place for 3 years now and have become very hearty and have been growing taller each year. This year I built a trellis to help contain the bushes and make it possible to walk beside them and pick the berries with out getting all scratched up.

I took some 1″ PCV pipe and cut it into 4′ long sections on my chop saw. I then used U joints to connect the sections together. One cross section with legs. I laid the PCV pipe on the garage floor to help keep everything lined up and straight. For the back trellis I built one with 4 sections. The last section was cut back to 24″, which give it a length of 14 feet. The front trellis was built with 2 sections, for a length of 8 feet.

I placed the PVC pipe in the ground using a hammer and a small piece of 2″x4″ lumber. I then stretched a plastic mesh material that I purchased at a local nursery. This mesh was made for plant support. The mesh was attached with wire ties to the pipe and then cut to size with a pair of scissors.  After all of this was done the while plastic pipe just stood out in the garden like a sore thumb. Something needed to be done to make it blend in better with its surroundings. I went to the hardware store and purchased a can of black paint that is made to put on plastic furniture. I sprayed the pipe black and it blended in better with its surroundings. The two trellis did their job this season and we were able to pick berries without getting all scratched up.