Bamboo trellises have been popular garden staples for centuries now. These simple yet ingenious creations make a world of difference by improving your floral or vegetable gardens’ general organization and appeal. Bamboo trellises come in various sizes, shapes, colors, and intriguing patterns, making gardening fun. If you are new to gardening and wondering why there’s a lot of rave about this simple piece of equipment – here’s why.
Like any other trellis, a bamboo trellis is a structure made of vertical and horizontal poles (in this case, bamboo) arranged in a defined pattern. The trellis’ primary purpose is to help train plants to grow vertically by giving them the much-needed support. Trellis makes such an excellent and economical piece of art just about anywhere they are placed. They add a distinct touch of style and functionality whether in your back yard, potted plants, tomato garden, or your vines garden.
Some of the uses of the bamboo trellis are:
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1. Optimize garden space.
Trellis support climbing or vining plants up off the ground, which minimizes the horizontal space taken up. They are particularly employed in vertical gardening, a contemporary gardening technique that is space-efficient. By encouraging plants to grow vertically instead of horizontally, trellises economize on space and help increase the number of plants per square foot area.
2. Promotes yields
Bamboo Trellis is strong enough to anchor heavier plants without falling apart. Therefore, vines and other twining plants do not have to utilize their energy in developing a strong support system. Rather they spend their time developing deeper roots, reproduction, and growing great foliage.
Additionally, with an increased surface area exposed to the sun, your plant can access more sunlight, which is vital for photosynthesis. With the much-needed sunlight, the plant can grow stronger, healthier, and lush, increasing the yield to 3 times.
3. Gives you greater control over your plants.
Ever looked at a garden with extremely overgrown vines? Tendrils twining on every visible object, the whole garden transformed into one great Tarzan jungle? Well, if you are those who do not mind the wild sight, that’s great, but for those who do, we certainly encourage some pruning.
We all can agree that left alone, climbers can quickly grow enormously dense and out of shape. The ultimate solution to control the height and size of your vines is by using a bamboo trellis. By picking the necessary patterns, length, and weight of your trellis, you get to decide how big and tall you want your climbers to grow. Also, the shape and design of your trellis will guide you on how and where to snip off now and then.
4. Landscaping gardens.
This is perhaps my favorite use of bamboo trellises. Everyone is obsessed with plush and lush gardens. They are so meticulously pruned and decoratively shaped in playful ways and are rife with full-bloomed bright colored flowers of all kinds. The view, the floral scent – is simply breath-taking.
Bamboo trellises blend well with the rest of the plants giving your garden a natural facelift. They do not give off any harmful properties and, if well-placed, do not injure any of the plants. With your personally designed DIY bamboo trellis, you can have your vines twining in all shapes and forms. It will be an interesting way to distinguish your home from that of neighbors.
5. Beautiful shades
Using a trellis, you can create small or large intimate spaces within your garden. Though tough, bamboo is comfortable to lay and recline on. It has no pungent smell, and with the flowers all around and through it, it is certain to be small heaven of delight!
6. Privacy Screens
Instead of barricading your house with insanely high walls to prevent outsiders from prying, trellises are a more eco-friendly, cost-effective, and stealth way of doing just that. A well-designed and positioned trellis around your windowpane will have vines growing around that area in no time, creating a beautiful natural opaque layer.
7. Great Benefits of Bamboo that make it the ideal-go-to
Trellis can be made by a myriad of other materials, namely wrought iron, strings, wire, plastic, and even wood. However, bamboo remains the most preferred material for garden trellis all around the world. Here’s why bamboo should be your ultimate go-to.
- It is light-weight
- Readily available all around the world
- Very strong
- Drought- tolerant
- Can withstand both very high and low temperatures
- Remains green for a longer duration of time
- It’s a natural material and blends well with the garden.
- Easy to cut throw and stake in the ground
Interestingly, Bamboo belongs to the grass family as opposed to the wood family. This is why it has a hollow trunk and no hard rings on its surface. There are over 1500 species of bamboo plants globally. Due to its non-pollutant properties, fast growth, and excellent benefits to the environment, this grass will continue to top the charts when it comes to creating garden trellis.
For pro-green enthusiasts, you will love these fun facts about the bamboo plant.
- It is edible, well, some species.
- It decreases the temperature of surrounding environments.
- It purifies air
- During drier seasons, it self-mulch to provide the soil with enriching nutrients that boost its growth.
- In its natural habitat, it has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties but loses these properties once harvested.
Ideas on how to design and use your Garden Bamboo Trellis
Your garden bamboo trellis does not need to be boring. You can have fun designing your trellis at home with a simple stack of bamboo poles, twirl or string, and a sharp knife (to curve out your stakes).
Here are some simple designs that you can start with. Feel free to tweak and develop them if you like.
1. Classic teepee trellis
Pick 5 to 6 poles of the same length and tie them together 3 to 4 inches away from the extreme top end. Once firmly secured, spread out the other open end of the trellis and firmly secure the poles in the ground. Position the trellis over your plants. You can clip the plants to some of the poles using garden clips.
2. Ladder Trellis
Using two long bamboo poles and 5 to 6 shorter bamboo poles. Tie up the shorter poles across the length of the two longer poles. You can choose to maintain a uniform distance between the shorter poles or vary the distance. Alternatively, you can opt to position the two longer poles in a V-and tie the shorter poles to it to give you a V-shaped bamboo trellis.
3. Rooftop Trellis
Make 3 ladder trellises of equal length, perhaps 4 feet long. Tightly secure them in a roof-like design by placing 2 of the ladder trellis 4 feet apart and tie up the 3rd ladder at the extreme top.
4. Wall Trellis
Using eight poles or more, arrange four poles vertically and place the other four poles horizontally across them. Ensure you maintain a uniform distance between each pole to give it a cute square pattern. You can also spice things up by angling all the horizontal poles either upwards or downwards to give you a design of choice.
Tips on how to take care of your Bamboo Trellis for prolonged use
Once cut, bamboo poles need to be treated and taken good care of to avoid rot. Surprisingly a well-preserved bamboo pole can last up to 20 years!
The biology of the bamboo tree is unique. The heavy starch deposits in its interior quickly attract pests and other fungi to it. The hollow bamboo pole needs to be treated before use (suppliers typically do this).
While using the bamboo poles, make sure to:
Polish its surface and hollow tops with a protector gel
- Avoid using nails to secure the bamboo poles unless the bamboo is pre-drilled.
- Minimize contact with water
- Keep away from direct sunlight.
Frequent and prolonged exposure to water and sunlight, especially during storage, will greatly contribute to rot. Since the end of the bamboo trellis will inevitably stay in contact with the soil, which will increase the chances of decay, you can offset some of the adverse effects by this simple trick.
As opposed to staking the trellis bamboo poles into the ground, you can opt to drive in a separate set of smaller stakes and anchor the poles of the trellis to these stakes. This will prolong your trellis’ lifespan as the ends are not directly buried deep in the soil.
Best Brands of bamboo trellis
For affordable already-made bamboo trellises that are both durable and stylish, visit Minifa Natural Bamboo Trellis or RISEON Bamboo Wall Trellis. For quality stakes to use to make your trellis, visit HOPELF Bamboo Plant Stakes.
Bamboo Trellis are here to stay. Join in the fun by designing your preferred wall, roof, or tepee trellis, or simply purchase a re-usable one. With these tips, you can enjoy various uses and have your trellises last longer without rot. Yay!
