Cassilhaus: THE TRELLIS

After our great Cedar Milling Adventure we were itching to use some of our beautiful lumber on a project. Lord knows you can't start a project without spending some money on a new tool! We had been borrowing our friend Randy's table saw for eons and as we thought Ellen's trellis design might evolve as we figured out what viable lumber we had we decided to take the plunge and get ourselves a portable table saw and it is a beauty. How else to you get 3 1/4" x4" cedar posts for that assymetrical look?

Note the OSHA approved dust collection system on the Tidy Cat pail.

We wanted to build a trellis to grow rasberries on the lower level and kiwis on the top. From what we have read, kiwis can be a challenge and take a long time to fruit but if they do they apparently can be quite prolific AND quite heavy bearing as much as 300 lbs. of fruit from a single vine. They recommended building a very hefty trellis so we accommodated. The basic design is two independant sections with 4 large posts in a ladder configuration on each end with two horitzontal arbors of sorts at the midpoint and on the top. The two sections are set at an angle to each other to form an entry into a new shade garden. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

We did a really nice countersink for the bolts for the ladder rungs.

These are the "arbors". Different lengths for the top and mid section. They are offset to the south to accommodate growth toward the sun.

It was very helpful to be able to mock up the design as we fabricated it in the carport.

Bracing attached to the "ladders" supports the "arbors"

At the end of weekend one we had "finished" one section and loaded it up on our otherwise worthless garden cart and spent a lot of time cleaning up cedar saw dust.

After the 500$+ in chiropractor, rolfer, and massage therapist bills after the deer fence project, I elected to rent an auger from Home Depot and enlist the aid of Julian to run it.