Build a cattle panel trellis that can handle a hurricane!

today daisy and i are going to show you how we build trellises out of cattle panels that hopefully can hold up to a hurricane we're going to show you how we dig holes with drills and how to make these in both 16 and 8 foot lengths if you stick around right to the end we'll show you why some of them are [Music] green before we get into the actual build i need to talk really briefly about some of the parts that we use for the actual panels we use cattle panel you can get cattle panel at tractor supply and probably from any other farm store supply that you have around we use 16 foot lengths for the full length beds we use eight foot lengths for the half link beds all of the other components that we use are chain-link fence parts the tension clips and the rail braces are both for one and three-eighths inch top rails the poles themselves are the one and three-eighths inch top rail we'll leave some links to those we get them from lowe's you should be able to get them from any big box hardware store also because you're going to have to dig to install the poles the way that we do make sure there are no electrical or plumbing lines underneath the areas where you're going to dig most municipalities or utility companies will have a process where they can come out and check for free please make use of that don't hit an electrical line or a plumbing line and have a big repair just because you didn't know that there was a plumbing line underneath where you're digging you're going to need an 8 or 16 foot cattle panel some 1-3 8 inch chain link fence top rails you're going to need some brace rail clamps some tension clips and some carriage bolts for tools we used a pole driver but a good size hammer or mallet will probably do you probably want a tape measure and a marker a half inch ratchet or wrench for the carriage bolts a hacksaw or reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade something to cut pvc with and something to dig the holes we'll talk about our drill auger in just a bit when installing the poles for our trellises we've found the easiest method is to dig the holes for them using an electric drill with a garden auger bit this is one we got from ace hardware but you can find them on amazon and a few other hardware stores we'll leave some links down below we find the 30 inch bit is enough to get the hole started and still leaves enough solid ground for us to pound the pole in so that it's more secure than digging all the way down we find this works perfectly for us as our poles are secure but they don't sink any further in our soft sand however depending on the ground that you're working with this may not work for you you may have solid rock that you're trying to get through or you may have old tree roots or some other reason that you can't drill all the way down for your poles in this case it might be a better idea to use a post hole digger and concrete and maybe only dig the poles in a foot or two and secure them with concrete instead of just the soft sand when preparing to drill for the pole it's best to be sure where you want it before drilling if you're six inches off in a measurement it's not that big of a deal you just have to drill another hole however if you're only an inch off it's really difficult to start a new hole that close to one that you've already done as the auger bit keeps trying to get back into the original hole and it's nearly impossible to get a pole in straight once you've done that this is definitely a case where you want to measure twice and drill once for this bed we're going to install an eight foot panel centered in the bed we measured the entire width of the bed and put a mark in the center of that measurement for this particular bed we've been growing peas on the trellis that we've set up originally and we think we can simply transfer the existing trellis on top of the new one until the peas are done for the winter once they're done we'll cut down the old mesh and use string for guiding any plants up to the new trellis once they're on the new trellis we can cut down those strings as well we're simply using a wheelbarrow and a yard can to stop the mesh from getting tangled up in the seedlings that are already growing in that bed while we work when using an auger bit you'll get a knack for how to best dig up your soil we've found that ours has a couple of inches of topsoil that the auger really binds up in but after that it's mostly used miacusand that comes out quite easily you probably want to let the auger go down a few inches at a time and then pull it back out to lift the sand that you've just augured dig a few inches deeper pull that back out and repeat as needed until the drill is almost level with the ground be aware that if you let the auger dig in too deeply or you hit a pocket of firm soil or a big rock it'll pull the auger in and you'll have to reverse the drill to free it we measure all the poles so that they're even when we're done each pole has a normal end and a skinny end we measure 70 inches from the normal end and mark the pole at that point we use a t-pose driver to sink the pole up to that mark lining up the mark with the top of the bed frame if you don't have a t-post driver you can use a hand-held sledge hammer or a mallet but we recommend putting a board or something similar on top of the pole while driving it in so that you don't dent up the top of the bowl since we've already built one eight foot trellis we simply measured its length from pole to pole to determine exactly where to drill our second hole for this trellis for this first attempt at setting up a trellis we recommend attaching the panel with the tension clips which we'll show in a bit later to both poles to see where the second pole needs to go you can also work this out just by measuring just be sure to account for the length of the clips and the diameter of the poles for poles that end up getting installed in the middle of the bed we find that propping a 2x4 over the bed allows us to use that as a guide and as a step so that we can work in the middle of the bed without stepping on anything we mentioned earlier that you might want some extra brace rail clamps here's why we would like a cross beam at the end of each of our trellises this cross beam could be used to hold up shade cloth during the hottest parts of the summer while this won't be enough for some vegetables we have found that we can keep some plants productive using a shade cloth when it's too hot for them to survive without it if that allows us a few extra varieties of something that we wouldn't normally be able to grill or if it gets us a few more harvests of something for a couple extra weeks it'll be well worth it to us if you want to do the same here's where the extra brackets are useful install a bracket on the normal end of the top pole before installing it on the vertical poles use a piece of pvc temporarily for the clamp to install correctly when you need to install the actual cross piece you can simply remove the pvc and put in a four foot piece of top rail by adding the clamp now you know how much past the end of the vertical poles you need the top pole to extend just be sure to install a bracket on both ends as the exposed pole ends will be sharp after they've been cut in order to install the top pole install a bracket on the vertical poles install the carriage bolt and the nut but don't tighten it yet you'll install the top pole through the brackets then tighten them down when everything's positioned once the main frame is completed install a couple of tension clips on the top rail hanging downwards you'll notice that the clips are bent to one side it doesn't really matter which way you install them just be sure to keep all the clips oriented in the same direction if you plan ahead you can install them on the pole before you finish bolting down the bracket clamps if you didn't do this just bend the clips apart far enough to go over the pole and then bend them back together hanging the panel on the clips is easier with two people but one person can manage it if necessary just install one end of the panel on the clip and thread the nut on the carriage bolt to keep it attached lift the other end of the panel and install it on the other clip we prefer to mount the clips about three squares in from the end this seems to be the strongest of the locations we've tried and it stops the center of the panel from wobbling back and forth in high wind once the panel is hanging you can loosen the braces on the vertical poles and square up the frame using the panel as a guide once you have the frame square to the panel re-tighten the braces and install at least one clip per side on the vertical poles one clip per side might be all you need but we like to over build so we install two per side once all the clips are installed on the panel tighten them all up as we mentioned before this trellis already had peas growing on a temporary trellis that we installed we're simply going to take that temporary mesh and zip tie it back up to the trellis that we've just built the peas may transfer over to the new trellis but more likely we'll just wait until they're done at the end of this growing season cut them out and remove that mesh at the same time final step needed for the installation is to cut down the top pole so that it matches the two vertical poles to know how much of the top rail to leave on the end of the post measure the distance from the end of a brace clamp to the bolt in the middle of the clamp mark the top post on the outside of the trellis the same distance that you just measured and cut it there i recommend using a hacksaw or reciprocating saw with a fine toothed metal cutting blade once the pole is cut install a brace and a pvc pipe just like we did on the other end if you don't want to add the cross pieces like we do just cut the pole flush with the existing vertical brace to build a 16 foot long trellis we use almost exactly the same process as we did with the eight foot trellis the main difference is that our beds are exactly 16 foot long the cattle panels are exactly the same length that means that the poles themselves because of the added length of the clips will fall outside of the bed instead of inside the bed like the eight foot panel did when installing a pole that falls outside the bed we scrape away the mulch before drilling the holes otherwise the process is the same as for the eight foot panels just be aware that you should still line up your measurement of the vertical poles with the top of the bed frame if you want it to be level with the others the top pole requires an extra step because it's longer than the poles we actually purchase we need a 16 foot long pole but we bought 10 foot long poles the poles are designed with a smaller end on one end that small end fits inside the normal end on another pole essentially joining two 10-foot poles to make a 20-foot pole when we do this we add a couple of self-tapping screws to keep the poles together those sleeve joints are not very strong by themselves and they will come apart if one of the poles gets pulled on or suffers a heavy wind adding those couple of extra screws simply make sure that the entire structure remains sound no matter what stresses are put on it install the longer pole just like you did for the eight foot ones but add the extra brace in the middle for the center pole once all of the braces are installed snug them but don't tighten them completely because you have three separate poles it's very likely that you're going to have to make some adjustments when the panel gets installed if you want to use the cross beams at the end don't forget to add the extra braces on the top rail for that add a few of the tension clips on the top rail to hold the panel and install the panel just like the eight foot panel on the shorter trellis however you're going to add two more clips near the center pole to support the additional length of the 16 foot panel add the end clips and square everything up then tighten all the braces if you can get clips on the center post and they line up well enough to attach to the panel that's the best looking and functioning option otherwise when they don't line up we just use some galvanized fencing wire to strap the panel down to the center pole so it doesn't bang against the pole in the wind to finish everything up just cut the excess off of the top pole install the extra brace on the end if you want to use a cross pole if not just cut off the excess flush with the existing poles for our last bed we use a slightly different setup we're installing a 16 foot frame but we're not installing a cattle panel at this time good morning we ran out of batteries for the auger bit and the drill yesterday so we got one pole left to put in the ground and then we got to put the top beams on it and all the fittings and that should get us a working tomato trellis on the last bed for this particular bed we plan to install tomatoes for most of the center of the bed we'll be using a combination of vertical strings and florida weave to manage these so the panel isn't necessary other than that and the clips used to hang the panel it's exactly the same as the other bed once the poles are all bolted together and everything's relatively solid we go back and we tamp the sand down into the holes made by the auger bit the more sand we can get down there the firmer the poles will be eventually nature will take care of this for us but we like to give it a boost by hand watering them in the end result is that we have this trellis on the end here which is mostly going to be for tomatoes and that's why we didn't put a paddle a panel on that one now these other ones this is going to be primarily cucumbers down the center of this bed this will end up being peas or beans depending on the season and then this panel is primarily for watermelon we've had pretty good success growing watermelon on the panels it gets them off the ground keeps them a little bit less enticing to bugs but growing them up on a panel means that we can grow a lot of them and not use up a ton of space we mentioned at the beginning that some of our trellises are green the reason for that is because we use green vinyl tape to cover the trellis poles when we're done the poles can get quite hot in the sun they're also quite bright when they're new and shiny it takes quite a while for them to go dull so we cover them with vinyl tape just to make it easier here's how we do that you just take a single strip of tape attach it to the top in the center and just pull it down the length that you want it to go i then stick that entire piece of tape in the middle to the pole and cut off the roll at the bottom then you simply work your way outside if you end up with any wrinkles just lift the tape and pull the wrinkles out and then just work the tape out to the sides and then when you've got it all the way around just make sure that the edges are adhered well if you get one or two little ripples it's not a big deal you can clean them up if you want to and we find one piece of tape covers not quite half of the circumference of the rail so it generally takes three pieces of tape you'll just do one overlap another one and then overlap a final one on the back and you end up with a green pull that's how we build the trellises we think that they're going to be strong enough to hold up to any storms that we get and they're very convenient for the way that we grow thanks for watching we'll see you next [Music] time

Channel: Anole Garden

Views: 16,845

Keywords: Florida Gardening, vegetable garden, zone 9, vegetable garden design, vegetable gardening for beginners, vegetable garden fence, vegetable garden in florida, vegetable garden design ideas, florida gardening zone 9, cattle panel trellis, trellis ideas, cattle panels, how to, cattle panel vertical gardening, organic gardening, cattle panel tractor supply, cucumber trellis, garden trellis diy, garden trellis, vertical gardening, grow your own food, urban gardening

Id: BxTfgffuR9M

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020