While the gardening season is winding down and we head into fall and winter, it can be a good time to look at the more structural elements of your garden. When we talk about garden structures, people often think of obelisks, hedges, and pergolas in formal, ornamental gardens, but garden structures can be helpful in vegetable gardens too. Here are five DIY garden structures you can set up to make your garden more beautiful and efficient.
Cattle Panel Garden Structures
Cattle panel tunnels are one of our favorite DIY trellises. They’re sturdy, long-lasting, easy to harvest from, and just plain fun! There’s something magical about harvesting beans or cucumbers hidden in the shade of a leafy tunnel.
Plus they’re one of the easiest garden structures to set up. To make them, all you need is a cattle panel and two metal t-posts. If you want a longer tunnel, you can add additional panels with two t-posts per panel. We love them for pole beans, but you can also grow gourds, cucumbers, morning glories, melons, or other vining plants on the tunnel.
Check out our full guide to creating bean tunnels here.
Combined with greenhouse plastic and some lumber for framing, you can also use cattle panels to create a DIY high tunnel. Just make sure you secure them well so that the wind doesn’t destroy them. Here’s a handy example of someone creating a high tunnel with cattle panels.
Raised Beds
While not every garden needs raised beds, they have become increasingly popular, and it’s easy to understand why. Raised beds warm up faster in the spring and will dry out faster in wet areas for crops like garlic that don’t like water-logged beds. They can also make gardening easier. They can be easier to weed and more accessible for gardeners with mobility issues. You can also start gardening immediately in areas with poor soil.
That said, raised beds of course have both pros and cons. If you decide that they’re the right choice for you, you then need to select a site and decide what size bed you want to build, what materials you want to use, and what type of soil you’re going to fill them with. Check out our full guide to designing raised beds for tips to help you make these choices.
Cold Frames
We love cold frames for season extension and seed starting. They’re excellent for growing salad greens year-round (depending on your climate). They also help us get a jump on starting crops like bulb onions so they have plenty of time to grow.
Cold frames are easy to make at home; we’ve even seen budget examples made from hay bales and old windows, but most gardeners will want to build something a bit more permanent. You can use wooden, plexiglass, or even brick sides and fit it with some sort of glass or plexiglass lid on hinges for easy access.
The Farmer’s Almanac has a helpful guide to building a cold frame.
Wooden Trellis Garden Structures
Wooden trellises are another great garden structure to give your garden a style upgrade, and this winter is a great time to work on them. Trellises are also a great way to make the most of your garden space. You can use them to grow large, sprawling crops like winter squash and cucumbers vertically to save tons of garden space. They can also make it easier to harvest and help improve airflow, protecting crops from fungal diseases like blight and Downey mildew.
You can build foldable trellises for small crops like peas, wooden tomato cages, or large permanent trellises that can handle heavier crops like grapevines. Check out this video for multiple trellis options.
Produce Cleaning Station
While produce stations aren’t technically garden structures, they are a great addition for folks with large gardens. If you handle a lot of produce each year, building a dedicated produce cleaning station or a spray table and washing bin might be worth it.
A spray table is usually a table frame where the flat table surface is made from hardware cloth or a similar mesh material. It allows you to quickly spray off dirty vegetables with the hose. Some gardeners also set up a sink or wash bin. This can be used for washing or quickly cooling off tender vegetables like lettuce.
You can purchase produce cleaning stations, many people make them at home, often using repurposed materials like an old kitchen sink or plastic totes. The University of Minnesota Extension has a great example of how to construct one at home.
Garden structures aren’t just obelisks and hedges for formal gardens! Adding some DIY structures to your vegetable garden can enhance your space and make it more efficient and easier to use.
