TikTok Shares An Affordable DIY Bean Trellis Anyone Can Make

Beans are a great plant for newbie gardeners, lazy growers, and urban farmers looking to make the most out of a small plot. They sprout quickly and produce abundantly with minimal care. Plus, many pole bean varieties grow up ... and up and up. In other words, you'll need to provide them with something tall to climb. Fancy, ready, or custom-made trellises can be expensive. While it could be a good investment, since they're often built to last multiple seasons, that just isn't in every backyard gardener's budget. Thankfully, you can craft your own with some simple tools and supplies. Drive two tall poles, ideally with sharpened ends, deep into the ground. Top those with a third pole if you find them too wobbly. Then, you can choose to simply wind sturdy string from one pole to the other, creating a weave of trellising, or hang a net in the space.

Why is a trellis even necessary? Many of the types of bean plants that are easy to grow are vining varieties — and their tendrils can get very tall. For example, popular Blue Lake FM-1K pole beans climb up to 8 feet tall, as do stringless Kentucky Blue. Phaseolus vulgaris 'Fortex' reaches heady heights of up to 10 feet, while the Romano-type bean Smeraldo only reaches 6 feet maximum. You could let them sprawl along the ground like a bush bean, but that would make harvesting their delicious fruit tricky, to say the least. Trellising these plants keeps the vine and its beans off the damp ground, keeping the vine healthy and making picking easier.

The best time of year to plant green beans is spring (though early fall is okay, too) so get all your trellis materials ready in time for the season. Beans sprout and grow almost unbelievably fast! If you're going for the easiest bean trellis option, source two wooden posts at least 6 feet tall with the ends tapered to points — Home Depot has a 6-pack of pine stakes for just over $60. You'll also need some short screws, an electric drill, and a lot of garden twine. If you prefer an all-natural solution, go with hemp or jute rope, like this 805-foot roll for under $4 on Amazon. A slightly less eco-friendly but longer-lasting option is polyester garden string — a 2-pack of 115-foot rolls is about $6 on Amazon. Finally, a stepladder and rubber mallet or post driver might come in handy but aren't essential.

Drive the posts into the ground, deep enough that they don't wobble too much when you pull on them. Drill screws up the outer sides of the poles at no more than 1-foot intervals. Create horizontal trellis strings by looping the twine or rope around the screws of each pole, starting from the screws closest to the bottom and working your way up. Tie the string off every so often to keep it taut. This is really a one-season solution. If you hope to harvest and save green bean seeds to plant for next year, carefully pack away and stow all these trellising materials at the end of the season.