What Candy Wants - Candy Gets

[Jim Koepke]

Candy and I were out shopping looking at plants and other things. She saw some Jasmine and mentioned she wanted to grow some Star Jasmine on a trellis. The Wilco Farm Store had six foot trellises for $25. I told her an eight foot trellis could likely be built for less. They didn’t have any Star Jasmine, lucky me.

So we were out and about in Portland and happened to stop by the Portland Nursery. Right inside the gate was a nice Star Jasmine. Candy told me to get a cart.

The trellis needed five 1”X2”X8’ pieces to build. Took me longer to pick out a bundle and pay for it than it did to put it together. 4d nails were used with a piece of scrap under the places where the nails were being knocked home. About a half hour of sawing and nailing. The nails were a hair longer than the thickness of two pieces if the wood. This is where a little piece of rail road track comes in handy. My short piece of track was set on a piece of scrap on the bench and the points on the nails were quickly flattened.

The hard part was making the supports. Some scrap 2X2 was found. Fortunately on a rust hunt a year or two ago a long 9/16” auger bit was found. That is just the right size for some scrap rebar that was just waiting to be used.

Drilling for Rebar.jpg

With the bit freshly sharpened it took to the wood in such an aggressive manner it needed a 10” brace to keep it spinning. It went through the wood pretty fast. To help keep the bit straight piece of scrap were clamped to the work for guides. There was some blue tape on the bit to mark the depth of boring.

A 6” brace was used for driving the screws to attach the supports.

Driving in the Screws.jpg

Six brass #12 - 2” long wood screws were dug out of my screw stash. The shank holes and pilot holes were drilled in the bottom of the trellis, three for each side. The screws were given a liberal coating of candle was before installation.

The trellis was installed fairly easily with only a few taps from a mallet.

Trellis in Place.jpg

Candy is happy with it and that is what counts.

Tomorrow the Star Jasmine will be planted.

jtk

[Eric Brown]

Hope you have better luck with trellis's than I do. Built one for my mom and placed it in her front yard by the driveway. Unfortunately, it was apparently where the wind wanted to blow and it broke in the wind.
Yours looks nice and hopefully it's well anchored.

[Cameron Wood]

Looks good. I read about a fence company up your way that sets (1 1/2"?) pipe in concrete and then end-bored posts are slid down over that and pinned. The posts don't rot in the ground and can be readily replaced if necessary. Seems like a good plan, in theory anyway.

[Mike Manning]

Nice trellis, Jim!

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks to all for the kind words, ideas and taking a look.

Cameron, I think I've seen some of that. Even some of the pressure treated lumber will rot in the ground. Some is marked for ground contact and some says not to come in contact with the ground. We have ants up here than can do a job on PT lumber without touching the chemical protected area.

The bottom of mine is held about an inch or two above the soil by the rebar.

jtk

[Jason Meinholz]

Jim that looks great, spring time is upon us!

I will be building some trellises later this week, did you bother with any type of sealer, or just bare one by material?

[Jim Koepke]

Jim that looks great, spring time is upon us!

I will be building some trellises later this week, did you bother with any type of sealer, or just bare one by material?

Thanks Jason, this was left bare. The wood will develop a natural weathered look over time. If I'm still around in the 15-20 years it takes to fall apart, I'll just build another.

jtk

[Jason Meinholz]

Thanks Jason, this was left bare. The wood will develop a natural weathered look over time. If I'm still around in the 15-20 years it takes to fall apart, I'll just build another.

jtk

Thanks Jim, I'll be doing the same!

[Stew Denton]

Nice job Jim.

How did you attach the trellis to the rebar? Did you use 1/2" rebar?

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

Nice job Jim.

How did you attach the trellis to the rebar? Did you use 1/2" rebar?

Stew

Thanks Stew.

Yes, the rebar was 1/2". The ridges on it made it ~9/16" at the thickest parts.

The first image in the original post shows me boring holes ~8" into the ends of the 2X2. The rebar was ~20" long and was pushed into the ground. Even with soil soft from recent rains it needed a few taps from a hammer against a block of wood to drive it all the way home.

The trellis was attached to the two pieces of 2X2 at the base with three brass, 2" long #12 screws on each side.

Trellis Base Detail.jpg

The screws are on the back side of the trellis in this image.


jtk

[Mark Rainey]

Nice garden project for springtime Jim. Perhaps some follow up with pics later in the growing season?

[Jim Koepke]

Nice garden project for springtime Jim. Perhaps some follow up with pics later in the growing season?

Thanks Mark, will take some pictures later this summer.

jtk