Grow on an Arch Garden Trellis

There's no better way to match form to function than with an arch trellis for climbing plants. I honestly think a metal arch covered in lush tomato or cucumber vines is one of the most beautiful sights in a kitchen garden. Not to mention that vigorous vines flourish when they're given an entire arch trellis to climb.

Every growing season, I diligently prune and fertilize my climbing plants until I behold that magical sight of the vines on either side finally meeting at the top of the arch. That's my personal arc de triumph.

Here are tips to select the right arch trellis for your space, to grow the best plants on your arch trellis, and to encourage vines to spread out over the trellis to maximize your garden's beauty and production.

The Benefits of Growing on an Arch Trellis

Trellises, in general, add year-round beauty and keep the garden space looking tidy. But arch trellises are what will really make a statement in your garden.

Arch Trellises Maximize Your Growing Space

Thanks to their height, arch trellises literally triple your growing space since vining vegetables can easily grow from one side all the way to the other side. You can plant large vining plants side by side, and their stems and leaves will still have plenty of space to spread out along the trellis.

Arch Trellises Keep Your Plants Healthy

The structure of the arch keeps leaves and fruits off of the soil, which keeps your plants happier and less prone to pests and disease that can spread when plants are continuously exposed to damp or wet soil. Heavy fruits are less likely to break off because the stems will feel more supported.

Arch Trellises Encourage Plants to Grow Faster

Your vining plants will be better positioned to receive more air flow and maximum sunlight on each and every leaf. The smaller plants growing around the trellised plants will also be happier and healthier because they'll have access to more resources as well.

BONUS: Tending and harvesting are much easier when stems, leaves, and fruits are held in place.

Is an Arch Trellis Right for Your Garden?

Arch trellises are wonderful to place at the entrance of a garden space or to connect two or more raised garden beds. Spanning an arch trellis between two beds is the best way to tie your whole garden together and make it feel like a private getaway.

In order to reap all the benefits, your raised bed needs to be at least 3 feet wide. I don't recommend going with an arch trellis if you only have one raised bed. You'll just end up shading most of your growing area. The key is really to have the base of the arch at the edge of the bed so that the shadow it casts is mostly between your raised beds.

While you can DIY your own arch trellis with cattle fencing (don't use cattle panels—they'll collapse under the weight of your plants), you lose the durability of something much stronger and more permanent, like a metal arch trellis.

Metal arch trellises are typically the most expensive of the garden trellis options, but they are sturdy, durable, and beautiful. I consider them well worth the investment if your budget allows them.

Every time you walk underneath your plant-covered arch, you'll have the feeling of stepping through a portal into your own little oasis, even though you're still in your backyard.

What to Look for in an Arch Trellis

To take full advantage of growing on an arch trellis, you should look for a metal trellis that's at least 6 feet tall with bases that are 1 to 2 feet wide so that you can plant several vining plants on each side. The height is important because many of our favorite vining plants are vigorous growers. Tomatoes, for instance, can quickly outgrow even the tallest of tomato cages.

Again, I recommend metal trellises. Metal provides a much sturdier support structure, the kind that your more ambitious climbing plants crave in order to reach their fullest potential in the garden. The trellises in the Gardenary Shop are made of powder-coated steel, which is extremely durable and weather-resistant. You'll get to enjoy your trellises in your garden for decades to come (as opposed to the season or two that DIY trellises tend to last).

If you'll be installing your trellises in the ground, look for an arch trellis that comes with ground stakes.

Design Considerations for Arch Trellises

As far as the design of the trellis, there are two things to consider. The first is the style of your home. Do your best to find a trellis that complements distinctive features of your home exterior (windows, doors, columns, gates, light fixtures, roof lines, etc.).

The second consideration is a bit more practical. Arch trellises with smaller gaps between rungs are easier for plants to climb. Even the most delicate of pea tendrils, for example, can grasp onto the dainty rungs of the Paris Arch Trellis from the Gardenary shop. You can still grow vining plants successfully on thicker trellises (like the Modern Arch Trellis, pictured below, or the Nicole Arch Trellis), but you'll need to help your plants out a bit more to make sure they feel secure. (More on that in a bit.)

Learn more about the best height and width of an arch trellis.

Tips to Install an Arch Trellis

• Find a friend to help you.
• Install arch trellises before adding soil to your raised bed, if possible. Otherwise, you'll have to retrofit your trellis by digging out soil from your bed, installing the trellis, and backfilling.
• Ensure the base of the trellis is buried at least one foot deep in the soil of your raised bed. The weight of the soil will help to keep the trellis in place during bad weather.
• Use the metal stakes provided in your arch trellis kit to help secure the trellis in place, especially if you're installing the trellis in the ground.
• Make sure to install any trellises before you plant for the upcoming growing season to avoid damaging your plants' roots.

What Can You Grow on an Arch Trellis?

An arch trellis can support so many different types of vining plants. "Vining" covers a large group of indeterminate plants, including tomatoes, cucumbers, winter squash, and pole beans. The word indeterminate means what it sounds like: not yet determined. In other words, these vines can be long, very long.

Indeterminate vines need to grow up or grow out (or both!). These plants can easily spread out over an entire raised bed without any kind of trellis. They can also quickly outgrow a panel or obelisk trellis. That's why arches are especially great for vining plants that grow quickly or that have a long growing season (100 or even 120 days in the garden).

Let's look at the most common plants you might want to grow on your arch trellises. I've broken these plants into categories based on when they like to grow to make it nice and easy for you to plan how you can utilize your arch garden trellises.

What to Grow on an Arch Trellis in the Cool Season

You'll experience a cool season when your average high temp is between 31°F and 64°F. There's still a chance of frost, maybe even snow, but fortunately for us, there are some frost-tolerant fruiting plants that you can begin to grow on your arch trellises.

The Best Vining Plants to Grow on an Arch Trellis in the cool season include:

• snow peas
• fava beans
• sugar snap peas
• sweet peas (non-edible flowering plant)

What to Grow on an Arch Trellis in the Warm Season

Your warm season is when you'll enjoy temps between 65°F and 84°F. There's no more chance of frost or snow, so it's time to grow quintessential vegetables like cucumbers and tomatoes.

The Best Vining Plants to Grow on an Arch Trellis in the warm season include:

• indeterminate tomatoes (vining type)
• cucumbers (pole variety)
• vining nasturtiums
• pole beans

What to Grow on an Arch Trellis in the Hot Season

And finally, your hot season is when your high temperature will be above 85°F. If you experience several months with temps in the 90s and even the 100s, there are still tasty plants you can grow on your arch trellises.

The Best Vining Plants to Grow on an Arch Trellis in the hot season include:

• Armenian cucumbers
• asparagus beans
• luffa gourds
• malabar spinach
• small melons
• small gourds
• tomatillos

Note: Large melons and gourds could very well be too heavy for even the sturdiest of arch trellises and are best given lots of space to stretch out on the ground.

The Best Flowers to Grow on an Arch Trellis

There are flowers that can cover your trellis in seasons you're not interested in growing veggies.

Flowering vines include:

• coral vine
• hyacinth bean
• nasturtiums
• passion vine
• sweet peas

The Best Perennial Plants to Grow on an Arch Trellis

These options are best for arch trellises that are in the ground (not in your raised beds). If you pick one of these plants, your arch trellis will support its growth year round.

The best perennials to grow on an arch trellis include:

• blackberries
• honeysuckle
• raspberries
• trumpet vine
• grapes

Tips to Plant on an Arch Trellis

Follow these tips when planting on your arch trellis:

• Install your trellis before you plant to avoid damaging root structures.
• For most annual vegetables, I recommend planting at least 4 plants per trellis, two on each side. Most arch trellises are about 12 to 15 inches across on the sides, which gives these plants plenty of room. You'll be training their growth upwards, so you don't have to worry about giving them too much room to spread out side to side.
• You can plant the same variety on each side of your trellis or do different types or even altogether different plants if you'd like. I prefer to plant the same type on each side so that they'll grow at roughly the same rate and mirror each other, like the indeterminate tomatoes below.

Tips to Grow on an Arch Trellis

Follow these tending tips to maximize beauty and production on your arch trellis:

• Prune your plants to just one strong stem when they're young, before they've produced their first set of flowers.
• Make sure to water your plants deeply at least once a week.
• Secure vines to the trellis with a gentle string like jute twine. This will help your plants stay in place no matter what kind of weather they might be exposed to and encourages as much production as possible. As the plants grow upward, you can spread out the vines to really cover the whole trellis.

• Avoid adding nitrogen-heavy fertilizers. Too much nitrogen will encourage your plants to grow more leaves, not flowers and fruit. Sure, a dense canopy of leaves covering your arches looks stunning, but I'm sure you do want to harvest some fruit or enjoy beautiful blooms by the end of the season. All you need to do to keep your plants healthy is add some organic compost or earthworm castings around their roots regularly to encourage them to flower and then fruit. Repeat every couple of weeks.
• Prune your plants weekly, starting at the bottom of the vines and working your way up. Remove discolored and damaged leaves and non-fruiting stems to encourage your plants to focus on flower and fruit production
• Once your plants are producing, harvest fruits continuously.

How to Attach Plants to an Arch Trellis

Some plants want to climb and will be perfectly fine wrapping tendrils around rungs on their own. Other plants will need a bit of help from you, especially when they're young.

I recommend twine to hold plants like cherry tomatoes or sugar snap peas in place because it's gentle on stems. You don't want to use something that can rub or damage tender vines and leave the plant vulnerable to disease or pests.

The best way to tie your plants up is by looping the twine around the metal rung and then crossing the two ends before wrapping around the plant stem—think like a figure eight—and tying in a bow. Leave some slack in the twine instead of pulling tightly to give the plant room to grow and sway in the wind.

You can also use twine to extend your trellis so that tendrils of young plants like peas can find available rungs to latch onto. All you have to do is add horizontal rows of twine every inch or so up the first 12 inches of your trellis.

Tips to Grow Tomatoes on an Arch Trellis

Cherry tomatoes are my all-time favorite plants to grow on my Nicole Arch Trellis. You can grow tomato types that produce large fruits on an arch trellis, but I always get the best production with smaller fruits like grape and cherry types (Black Cherry, Sungolds, and Juliets, to name some of my favorites).

Here's how to grow tomatoes on an arch trellis:

• Make sure you have indeterminate tomato seedlings. Determinate, or bush, tomatoes don't need a tall trellis.
• Plant at least 2 tomato plants on each side of the trellis base once all chance of frost has passed. Bury tomatoes a bit past their neck (where root meets stem) to encourage the plants to form more roots, which will help the plants later once they're supporting fruits.
• Prune any secondary stems until the plants produce their first set of flowers.
• Prune discolored and damaged leaves weekly. Prune non-fruiting stems instead of tomato suckers to get more fruit.
• Use twine to secure vines to the arch trellis. Spread out the vines as the plant grows to cover the entire trellis.

Find more details to grow tomatoes on an arch.

Tips to Grow Cucumbers on an Arch Trellis

Cucumber plants are vigorous, productive vines. You can expect to harvest about 40 pounds of fruit from just one arch trellis if you plant two cucumber plants on each side of your trellis. Unlike tomatoes, cucumbers have little tendrils (they're basically specialized leaves) to help them climb objects.

Here's how to grow cucumbers on an arch trellis:

• Sow cucumber seeds in the garden once all threat of frost has passed. Make sure to sow seeds right next to the trellis base. Space about 6 inches apart.
• Straighten vines as they grow and help tendrils wrap around the trellis. Use twine to secure vines if the bars or rungs of your trellis are too thick for the tendrils to fully wrap around.
• Prune away leaves that look discolored or damaged, starting once the first set of flowers appear.
• Spread out the vines to cover the entire trellis.

Tips to Grow Peas on an Arch Trellis

Like cucumbers, peas have little tendrils to help them attach to support, though theirs are a bit more delicate. If those tendrils can't find something to cling to, the plants will halt their growth.

Most vining peas grow about 6 feet tall, so your plants might not meet in the middle, but they'll look beautiful on your trellis all the same.

Here's how to grow peas on your arch:

• Make sure you're grabbing seeds for a pole pea, not a bush pea.
• Dig a shallow trench along the base of your arch. Place one pea seed every 2 to 3 inches in the trench. Pinch the soil back together. Water daily while you're waiting for pea shoots to sprout.
• If your trellis has gaps between rungs wider than 2 to 3 inches, extend your trellis by wrapping twine every couple inches around the base of your trellis. Make sure you use something gentle, like twine, since pea tendrils can tear easily.
• Once you've supported your peas through their first 12 inches of growth, switch to tying individual vines to the trellis. Repeat weekly.
• Pinch off the tips of vines to encourage them to branch into two new ones. More vines means more flowers and more fruit.

Tips to Grow Blackberries & Raspberries on an Arch Trellis

Blackberries and raspberries can take up a lot of space. I've tried growing them on panel trellises before, but they often grow so tall that they get a little wild at the top. Growing them on an arch trellis minimizes the amount of space each vine needs. It also looks really beautiful.

Here are my top tips to support blackberries and raspberries on an arch trellis:

• Give each berry plant about 3 feet. Unless you have a really wide trellis, that probably means just one berry plant on each side.
• Berries are slow growers. Consider adding flowering vines around the berry plants while they take off.
• Prune to one main vine.
• Berries are different from tomatoes and cucumbers. They have a strong leader stem that you can tuck in and out of the rungs of your arch trellis to secure in place. You can also use twine if needed.
• Each year in early spring, prune back the old canes and allow the plant to grow new canes that will produce fruit.

Learn more about growing blackberries and raspberries on an arch trellis.

That's All There Is to Growing on an Arch Trellis

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