I have nice neighbors. Not everyone would agree to letting the crazy plant lady next door put a trellis on the privacy fence.

I ended up using tacks, yarn, and scissors for this project. I also wanted to have a neat grid so I grabbed a tape measure as well. You can also do a helter-skelter version of this; I really don’t think that cucumber vines have a preference. 🙂

All you do is push the tacks(small nails or staples will also work) into the fence in whatever shape you want. I chose a grid of rectangles. My rectangles were approximately 3’x1′. The trellis is about 7′ tall.

I really did contemplate using staples and nails, but I could hear music playing on the other side of the fence and I didn’t want to try my neighbor’s patience by banging a zillion times. I may go back, though, and strategically place some staples as insurance. 🙂

Then, twist the yarn or twine around the tacks(or nails).

Maybe next year I will do some complicated geometric figure, but this year I am satisfied with a decent-looking grid with some slashes for the cucumber tendrils to grab.

See? I think they like it.

If the new growth is any indication, the vines seem to really like their new trellis and the additional exposure to sunlight.

Technically, you don’t have to trellis your cucumbers, but a trellis can help keep the vegetables off the ground and lessen the damage due to bugs and moisture.

This project is an inexpensive way to trellis cucumbers. My garden plan changes from year to year, and this trellis can easily be removed if I decide to grow something else near the fence. If I do grow cucumbers here again, I will need to amend the soil with compost to replenish the nutrients.

My dill is growing nicely, and if I can restrain myself from putting it all in my Easy Chicken Salad recipe, I will have plenty for the homemade pickles on my June To-Do List.

Do you have any special cucumber recipes?

UPDATE: Look at it now! It has climbed to the top and is coming back down! The other day I picked 17 cucumbers off of the vines. They are loving being off the ground and all the warm sunshine. I have made pints and pints of my Amazing Refrigerator Dill Pickles.