How to build a DIY pea trellis

Want to grow climbing veggies for your garden this season? This pea trellis works great for all kinds of climbing veggies and is an easy build!

As the fall planting season came around, I decided I wanted to try planting something different that I haven't previously grown in our gardens- peas.

I know peas are a climbing vegetable, so I needed a trellis. I looked around at some of the trellises we had in place, like these pyramid style tomato cages and this chicken wire frame we built for loofah, but they didn't seem quite right.

So, I decided to build a simple trellis frame with garden twine spaced out evenly to give my peas somewhere to grow up and thrive!

DIY veggie trellis

I built this project as a pea trellis, but you can definitely grow any climbing veggies on here. You can easily use extra pieces of twine or cables to help hold the vines as they're growing if they don't grab onto the twine as well.

Use this for any garden you want to plant and it is very inexpensive to make!

Materials and tools needed

Here's a list of the materials and tools needed to build this project. To get the exact material list and cut list, grab my PDF woodworking plans to get the job done!

• 2x4s
• Garden twine
• Wood glue
• 2 ½" Kreg pocket hole screws
• Outdoor sealant
• Garden stakes

Step one: make cuts and drill pocket holes

I like to start by making all my cuts at once, that way I can rip through the building part easily. This project doesn't require much wood and if you use 8' 2x4s, you can get multiple cuts out of each board.

Then, I drilled pocket holes into the brace boards to be the connections to hold the frame together.

Step two: build sides

After sanding everything down, I built the two sides. These are just made of two posts with a top and bottom brace between them.

These each have opposing angles, so the posts line up with the braces to be flush on the bottom and top. The angles make it a little more balanced when standing, but technically, you can feel free to do what you want.

Step three: drill holes in top

Next I drill holes in the top board. I used a tape measure and marked out evenly spaced holes across the side of the board.

Then, I used my Kreg Drilling Guide to make sure I got perfectly centered holes and used a ¼" drill bit to drill through the board from side to side. This is where the cord is going to go through later.

Step four: connect sides

To connect the sides, you simply use wood glue and pocket hole screws to attach the top to the top of the two side piece you built before.

It's a simple connection, but stays plenty strong with both methods of joinery.

Step five: thread cord

Finally, I threaded the cord through the holes. For each one, I pushed the end of the twine through the hole and pulled it down to the ground.

I had both ends be slightly longer than ground level and then pushed a garden stake into the dirt. Looping one end of the twine under the stake, I then tied the ends of the twine together so that the line was taught.

Then I repeated it for the rest of the cords.

DIY pea trellis woodworking plans

If you like my pea trellis and want to build it yourself, I've got really simple to follow woodworking plans available for you!

My woodworking plans come with a full material list, cut list and step-by-step instructions that break down exactly what you need to do to make this project a reality.

Go build this trellis and start growing your own food!