Vegetable Garden Supports

By: Meriel Bradley

I plant 3 types of climbing vegetables – beans, peas, and cucumbers. They all need climbing support for the best results.

This year I decided to build a multi-use support that can be used for all 3 of my climbing vegetables.

I already had my raised beds so I just needed to create the frame and attach it to the sides of the vegetable bed.

I used untreated 2 x 2 by 8-foot posts to build the frame and then attached pea netting for my peas and cucumbers and 8-foot garden stakes for my beans using the frame to support a 6-foot stake that I ran over the path between the 2 raised beds.

The angle pieces in the corners are essential to provide stability to the structure.

This made a very stable and usable frame and made it very easy to grow and support my vegetables.

Building Tips

For each of my raised beds, I built 2 end frames with angled corner pieces for stability

I screwed these into the sides of the bed about 6 inches from the ends so I could plant seeds on either side of the frame if needed

Use a spirit level to make sure they were positioned correctly

I then added 2 horizontal bars to join the 2 frames together on the top

Along the back edge of one of my beds, I positioned a lower crossbar to make a frame for shorter shelling peas

I then attached pea netting using garden twine for peas and cucumbers

Because the frame is positioned 6 inches from the end of the bed, I can plant seeds along both sides of the pea netting

For my climbing beans, I installed 8-foot garden stakes with a 6-foot stake that spans the gap between my 2 beds

I used seven 2 x 2 x 8-foot posts for each of my raised beds, with one extra post for my shelling pea frame

 

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