Garden Arch Trellis

Garden Arch Trellis A garden arch made from a bent livestock panel is one of the best-value structures in a vegetable garden: a walk-through tunnel that grows cucumbers, beans and small squash overhead while you use the ground beneath. How to size the arch The arch is one panel bent into a hoop, so the panel length sets everything. A standard 16 ft x 50 in livestock panel bent between two beds gives roughly a 7 ft peak over a 6 ft span. Narrow the span and the arch climbs; widen it and the arch flattens. Set the feet 6 to 8 inches into the soil and stake each side to a driven T-post, or the first real wind will move it. An honest note on what we make We do not sell the 16 ft panel an arch needs. Our welded panels are built as fence and trellis panels and top out at 8 ft on the long side. If you want an arch specifically, buy a 16 ft cattle panel from a farm supplier — it is the right product for that job and it is inexpensive. When a flat panel beats an arch Arches are wonderful and they are not always the right answer. Against a wall, along a fence line, or on the north side of a bed where you do not want to shade what is behind it, a rigid flat panel gives you the same climbing surface, takes up no walking space, and does not need bending, staking or storing.