Growing your own vegetable garden provides you with plentiful greens to use in your daily cooking. Tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and cucumbers are some of the most common vegetables folks grow when starting a garden. Some vegetables can grow together, while others prefer having space to themselves where they can grow freely. Cucumbers, for instance, thrive on trellises. They grow best when they know they can climb high and wrap their vines around poles. Trellises allow them to expand and receive the proper air circulation they need. In addition, cucumbers growing vertically on the trellis make more room for plants to grow underneath them. Building a trellis is straightforward as well. In fact, TikTok user @laurenschell2 built a bamboo tepee trellis that can be replicated in any backyard.
You can set up your trellis anywhere in your backyard as long as it receives enough sunlight. Cucumbers enjoy warm weather and need about six to eight hours of direct sunlight to flourish. Pick an area where you have other vegetables growing, primarily root vegetables like radishes, beets, or carrots, so that you don’t have multiple climbing vegetables growing at the same time. Gather your materials once you choose a location to create your bamboo trellis. Even though you can complete this DIY in a few hours, there are a few mistakes you should avoid when growing cucumbers on a trellis.
You’ll need:
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5 to 6 bamboo poles
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Roll of jute twine
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Scissors
You can purchase bamboo poles from Ace Hardware for $5.99 and jute twine from Home Depot for $4.67.
Lay your bamboo poles on the ground
Take your bamboo poles and twine outside near your cucumber garden. Lay the poles next to each other on the ground with a little bit of space between them.
Tie the poles together with twine
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Grab the tip of each bamboo pole to create a bundle and wrap the heads with twine. Tie the twine about one inch from the top. You don’t want to tie the twine too tight because you’ll want the legs to be able to spread when you pick them up. So, lightly wrap the twine.
Pick up the bamboo poles
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After you tie the twine, pick the poles up and spread the legs out on opposite sides to create a tepee. The canes should easily spread out since the twine is loosely wrapped. The pole heads will likely cross in different directions so that they can balance against each other. Once you spread each pole, tighten the twine to keep them secure.
Lash the twine around the entire trellis
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After you spread out the poles, lash the twine around the entire thing, from the top to the bottom, to secure the trellis. The cucumbers need a ladder to climb over, which is where the twine comes in. Starting from the top, wrap the twine around one pole, then drag it across to the pole next to it and loop the twine around. You should have a piece of twine hanging straight in the middle of two poles. Continue the same movement with the other three poles. You want to leave space between two poles without twine for it to act as a door so you can go in and remove any dead vines or gather cucumbers. Tie off the twine once you reach the last pole in the top section. You should end up with a semi-circle after tying the twine. Then, move down to the next section, repeating the steps until you fill the trellis with twine. You should have at least 12 rows of twine around the trellis.
Position the bamboo poles around your cucumbers
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Pick up the bamboo tepee and position it over your cucumber garden. Since the twine is wrapped around each pole, you’ll have an easier time putting it over your cucumbers. Sink the bottom of the poles four to six inches into the dirt for extra stability. The cucumber’s weight depends on the type of cucumber you’re growing. Growing multiple cucumbers can weigh down your trellis if it isn’t stable. So, you could add a few rocks around the poles to keep them in place. However, sinking the bamboo poles into the ground should be enough to keep them in place as your cucumbers grow.
Water your soil
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Once you set up your trellis, water your soil and watch your cucumbers grow. You might already see a few growing if you DIYed your trellis with bamboo after planting cucumbers. Some cucumbers might already have vines growing out of the soil, so you can train them to grow on the trellis by wrapping or weaving a few of the vines along the twine. Over time, they’ll begin to climb the trellis by themselves. Check on your cucumbers daily to ensure they grow on the trellis and stay within the area. You could also make more trellises to grow different types of plants.
How long does a bamboo trellis last?
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Bamboo is a lightweight and robust material that’s perfect for gardens. It can last in excellent condition for years, depending on its use. Bamboo can last up to 15 years when it’s used for décor. Meanwhile, using bamboo in the garden, where it’ll be stationed in soil and watered occasionally, can last up to six years before showing deterioration. Of course, varying moisture levels and types of soil can affect how long bamboo canes will last. Nonetheless, you won’t have to replace your bamboo trellis for a few years, so you can continue growing cucumbers annually for many years.
