Vera Trellis

2024-07-31

We have jasmine in some diy redwood planters built along the garage. This is my third attempt at entraining them -- first jute twine, then nylon. Both were vertical and didn't work that well. The lines should be mostly horizontal!

Here is how it looked after a year or so of trying to grow straight up. I think the beds need more compost and some other tweaks to the drip irrigation too. Well to be fair that section in the corner near the door is doing great, I think it gets the most water and a bit less sun.. and perhaps has more bits to grab onto being near a downspout.

I saw a video building a trellis using M6 eyebolts from Muzata, they're about 75¢ each, and metal wire with tensioners. I figured fishing wire could work too so that's what I went with: easier to cut and no tensioners needed. It's rated for 48lbs.

I predrilled and aimed for studs at first, but I kept missing them.. thankfully the bolts felt quite sturdy when they were just in the siding. So eventually I just followed the pattern I wanted and didn't keep to 16" OC. I predrilled, then used a mallet to try to engage the bolt's teeth in the spongy siding, then tried to start each bolt by hand. I used an allen key chucked up in a drill to tighten everything down.

With the fishing wire I made a diamond pattern to fit either side of the window. Each diamond is 16" x 30".

We'll check back next year to see how it does!