Last year, we moved our raspberries to what ended up being the worst spot in the yard. Why the worst spot? There was an imperceptible dip in the yard, which stayed soggy and didn’t become evident until most of the canes died. Raspberries won’t tolerate wet soil for long—we learned that lesson the hard way!
A few of the raspberries flourished, though, and we did get a decent raspberry harvest. But I knew we needed to fix the situation.
In early March, we focused on raising the area the raspberries were planted in by adding soil, mulch, and lots of compost. I also asked John, my husband, to help me rebuild the trellis. I wanted a sturdier trellis than the original one. I’m embarrassed to admit it was repurposed electric cord tied around t-posts. Have I mentioned that John loves to repurpose what we already have?
Our neighbor also grows raspberries, so I decided to copy his trellis (which is a standard setup for a raspberry trellis). And here’s what our trellis looks like now:
Our raspberry bed is about 18′ long but, because the raspberries are just getting going again, we set the trellis to be 10′ long. It can easily be extended if needed.
Here’s a break down of the materials we used:
- T-posts
- Wood or other braces and hardware to attach braces to posts
- Rope/twine/trellis material
Building the trellis was super easy. John spaced out and sunk the t-posts in the ground. He also created the wood braces from leftover boards, drilled holes in them for the trellis material, and attached them to the posts. The rest was up to me.
I thought about using nylon twine for the trellis material but decided to use vinyl coated clothesline because it’s sturdier and should never have to be replaced. I bought mine at Home Depot but I’m sure most any hardware store carries something similar.
If you’re using pliable wire or twine, you can probably just wrap it around the post and tie it off. However, raspberries are heavy and I wanted to make sure the trellis was really stable. After a bit of online searching, I decided to use these wire rope clips.
Finishing the trellis was just a matter of stringing the clothesline through the holes, pulling up the slack, and attaching the rope clips on each side.
We’ve had quite a bit of rain over the past few weeks. The raspberries no longer have wet feet and are growing like crazy. All in all, a successful garden project!
Want to Learn More?
Need more ideas for raspberry trellises? Pinterest is your friend!