Multi-Purpose Garden Trellis Plans

Use these garden trellis plans to build a clothesline trellis that serves double duty, or skip the clothesline and use your trellis to shade a comfortable garden bench.

By Staff
Updated on November 15, 2021
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courtesy of Cool Springs Press

Practical Projects for Self-Sufficiency (Cold Springs Press, 2014), by Chris Peterson and Philip Schmidt, shows you exactly how to build dozens of projects for a self-sufficient lifestyle, with beautiful photos and complete plans for each. Four categories–Food Prep & Preservation, Homestead, Garden and Animals–cover a broad range on popular projects, often with a creative touch or two to make them easier to build or more efficient to use.


Modifying or repurposing a clothesline support to serve as a trellis is not a new idea, but it’s certainly a good one. It’s also kind of a head-slapper, as in, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

After all, you’ve got this tall, sturdy, utilitarian structure taking up space in a sunny spot that’s easy to reach from the house…so why not grow some plants on it?

If you don’t already have a clothesline support or two that you can be turned into a trellis, you can build this one from scratch. The construction is easier than it looks. All of the beams and uprights are joined with special timber screws, so there’s no complex or custom t-joinery. And you can build the entire trellis in your shop or garage, then dig a couple of holes and get it set up in one go.

The basic structure of the trellis is inspired by the Torii, a traditional Japanese gateway to a shrine or other sacred place. The overhanging top beam, or lintel, is a characteristic feature for this type of structure and in this case can be used to support hanging plants or wind chimes or simply be left as is for a clean look. The vertical spindles in the center of the trellis are made with 1-1/2-inch-square pressure-treated stock. (You can also use cedar or redwood.) They’re offset from one another in an alternating pattern for a subtle decorative effect. You can change the spacing of the spindles as needed to suit your plants, or even use a different material, such as round spindles, wire or string.

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