Grab an Obelisk Trellis Kit

Adding a beautiful trellis to your kitchen garden not only corals your vining plants, it also raises the bar and makes an artistic statement.

It's never been easier to set up beautiful, durable, and functional trellises in the garden thanks to trellis kits available for purchase online. When you buy an obelisk trellis kit, for instance, you get a box in the mail and follow easy directions to assemble a structure that can support your cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, and pole beans—all the good stuff that likes to grow vertically.

Metal trellises are a much longer-lasting option than wooden trellises. Look for powder coated steel to prevent rusting for as long as possible—but after enough time has passed, even custom-made metal trellises will rust. The strongest, most high-end obelisk trellises are those that arrive to you in one piece, but even obelisk trellis kits that require some assembly are worth consideration. Their affordability makes them great starter trellises, and they'll still give you tons of growing space in your garden.

Why Add an Obelisk Trellis to Your Kitchen Garden?

There are three types of trellises to use in a kitchen garden:

• arch trellis
• panel trellis
• obelisk trellis

(Learn which type of trellis is best for your garden.)

Obelisk trellises are ideal for growing in a wider garden, like a raised bed that's at least 3 feet wide. Place obelisk trellises in the middle of the bed or at the back of a raised bed placed against a structure to keep your vining plants easily accessible.

The one limitation of an obelisk trellis is the way it narrows at the top. Climbing plants can easily become overcrowded and run out of space to grow at the top. Obelisks shaped more like an imperial crown help to avoid this issue.

Before you can grow lots of delicious plants up your trellis... you have to put it together!

I'm going to walk you through putting together a Border Tuteur trellis kit from the Gardenary shop. Assembly for another kit will be similar.

What's Included in a Trellis Kit

Your trellis pieces should come wrapped in plastic to protect the metal from scratches. I find the use of so much plastic to be a bummer, but it's necessary to keep your product safe.

Each kit should include:

• top bended pieces of the arch
• side poles
• hoops
• top finial
• hardware (screws to connect the pieces, bolts) and wrench

Follow these steps to assemble. I'm not that great at building Ikea furniture, but even I can do this, so I know you can, too!

Step #1

Unpack the box and make sure you have all the correct pieces and a set of instructions.

Step #2

Place the upper main frame pieces together as shown in the instructions, with thread from the lower piece passing up through the second piece. Rotate the finial down onto the thread until tight. Don't make it too tight to begin with; you can tighten it up later.

Fit the lower main frame rods into the upper main frame sockets. Be absolutely sure that all the welded tabs with holes on the lower rods are pointing in the same direction as the tabs with holes in the upper assembly. This is essential for correct ring assembly.

Let me say this from the beginning: You're not going to get it to be exactly the right shape. It’ll come together a bit more once you have the first hoop on.

Step #3

From above, place all four rings over the outside of the main frame and lower the rings to the ground. Raise the first ring up to the topmost welded tabs and align the four holes in the ring with the four holes in the tabs.

From opposite sides, pass two bolts from the outside through the ring and holes in brackets. Leave the two remaining holes in the ring empty for now. Put nuts onto the bolts from inside and finger tighten. Repeat for the remaining three rings, making sure that you line up the bolts and nuts for each ring. It might be best to turn the structure on its side for this part. Alternatively, once you have the top rings on, you could stand your trellis up in the soil of your raised be to hold it in place while you work.

Use the wrench included in the hardware package to tighten up each segment. We found that the more we tightened it up, the straighter it got. It’ll also settle more once it’s in the garden. 

The outside swirls go on last. Besides being decorative, they firmly lock the top half to the lower half so that when your trellis is assembled, it will look and feel as solid as if it had been welded together.

Step #4

Take one of the side curved strips, and starting from an empty hole in the top ring, place a bolt through one end of the curved strip, then through the ring and bracket. Fasten with a nut on the inside. Repeat for the lower end of the same curved strip, securing it onto the lower ring. Then add the other curved strip for the top assembly. When you attach the two curved strips for the lower assembly, make sure they line up with the upper strips to give the appearance of a continuous curve from top to bottom. Tighten all the nuts and bolts with the wrenches. 

Ta da!!!! You're all done. Your obelisk trellis is fully assembled and ready to be pushed into your garden. Now your kitchen garden has a super stylish obelisk trellis that will look awesome in the summer covered in tomatoes or cucumbers, and beautiful in the winter all covered in snow.