A surprising number of annual crops benefit from the support of a trellis. Because we love trellised crops and because we’ve been trialing a ton of varieties, we started carrying a selection of Renee’s Garden seeds in our shop! Here is a short list of some of our favorite crops and varieties to grow vertically in the garden and links to our store where you can find our favorite types:
Beans: This classic garden crop comes in 2 main growth forms: bush types and pole types. Pole beans should always be grown on a trellis. They are very vigorous growers that have tendrils and a habit of wrapping their entire stem around whatever vertical support they can find. This makes them extremely easy to support and we’ve grown pole beans both on vertical strings and right on the posts of our trellis. They’ll wrap themselves around either structure and rarely need any additional training after they initially find the trellis and start wrapping.
Varieties we recommend: Emerite Filet, French Gold Filet, Kentucky Wonder, Painted Lady Runner Beans
Cucumbers: Another very popular crop that benefits tremendously from trellising. Cucumbers can be left to sprawl on the ground, but their fruit become very susceptible to insect damage and rot when grown this way. Sprawling cucumber fruits can also be very difficult to locate in all of the vegetative growth of the plants, so even quality fruits can be missed. Fortunately, like beans, they are very easy to train on a trellis. We prefer to grow them on vertical strings hung from the top bar of the trellis. We drape a piece of twine over the top and secure both ends of the string in a trellis clip at the base of the plant. No knots required! Cucumbers have tendrils and do wrap themselves, but grow best when given a little extra attention to keep them on course. Add a trellis clip or gently wrap your plants around the twine every week or two in the early season. After a few weeks, they’ll be well secured to the string and unlikely to need any additional intervention.
Varieties we recommend: Straight Eight, Suyo Long, Tasty Treat
Eggplant: While eggplant aren’t vines, they can be very top-heavy. Eggplants can grow up to 4-5 feet tall and heavily-loaded plants can topple over under the weight of their fruit. These plants certainly don’t require a trellis, but do tend to be more tidy and less likely to fall over and break if grown with support. To trellis eggplant, drape a string over the top bar of your trellis and secure both ends in a trellis clip at the base of the plant. Gently wrap the stem in the twine, or add an additional trellis clip, 1 or 2 times as the plant grows and that should provide enough support to keep it upright for the entire season.
Varieties we recommend: Italian Violetta Lunga
Melons: Melons are a vining plants with tendrils, so perfect for trellising. Larger melon, like full-size watermelons are best grown on the ground, but fortunately there are a lot of smaller-fruiting melons available that grow perfectly on a vertical string and take up much less space in the garden!
Varieties we recommend: Tuscan Retato Degli Ortolani
Homegrown melons ripening on the Freyr garden trellis
Peas: Nearly everyone loves peas of some kind. And there are lots of kinds to choose from! Every year we grow snap peas, snow peas, shelling peas, and sweet peas (sweet peas aren’t edible, but they’re beautiful) on our trellises. Because peas can be planted very closely together, the easiest way to support them is with horizontal strings. Just plant a row of your favorite peas under the trellis, tie a piece of twine on on post, and wrap it across the front and back of the planting. Repeat this every time the plants grow 6-12 inches and you’ll have a very tidy, and easy to harvest crop!
Edible pea varieties we recommend: Sugar Daddy, Oregon Sugar Pod ll
Sweets peas: We’re thrilled to be carrying 10 different sweet pea varieties, hand selected by Hilary. We can list them all here, so pop over to our shop to see what we recommend!
Peppers: Like eggplant, peppers are a non-vining, but top-heavy plant. Supporting your pepper plants with vertical strings will keep them off the soil, protecting your harvest and making the garden look great.
Varieties we recommend: Sweet Italian Sunset Mix, Jalapeno, Sweet Orange & Red Bell
Summer and winter squash: There are many sub-species of squash, but the 2 primary growth habits are bush and trailing. Any trailing squash can be supported with a trellis. Like melons, the largest squash can be difficult to support vertically, but there are dozens of squash varieties suitable for vertical growing. We love to grow smaller-fruit winter squash, and summer squash on our trellis. Many summer squash and zucchini are bush types, but there are trailing types available, like the Incredible Escalator, that we absolutely adore.
Summer squash: We’re super excited to be carrying the hard-to-find, Trombetta di Albenga, and Incredible Escalator, which is exclusive to Renee’s seeds.
Winter squash: Baby Honey Nut, Delicata, Kurin Kabocha
Homegrown cucumbers growing on the Freyr garden trellis
Tomatillos: One of the most sprawling, upright plants in the garden. Tomatillos branch endlessly and often end up with broken branches and dropped fruit. Growing tomatillos on a trellis with either horizontal or vertical strings can help keep them out of the way of nearby crops and protect your harvest, reducing the number of broken branches and dropped fruit.
Varieties we recommend: Fiesta Duo
Tomatoes: Probably the most popular garden crop of all time, tomatoes are nearly always grown on a trellis. Tomatoes come in 2 main growth forms: determinate and indeterminate. Determinate tomatoes stay relatively short and set fruit in a narrow window of time. Most of the popular varieties are indeterminate, which means that they grown indefinitely and fruit over a longer period of time. Both types benefit from trellising, but it’s really the indeterminate ones that need support the most. Tomatoes don’t have tendrils and need a bit more training than other crops, but it’s always worth it. Fortunately, they can easily be supported with either horizontal or vertical strings. Whichever technique you prefer, plan to spend a few minutes every week helping train the plants and keep them on track. This is as simple as adding an additional string, trellis clip, or just wrapping a stem around the existing twine. Check out our tomato trellising videos for more details.
We’re carrying 7 different varieties of tomatoes, all of which we’ve grown and love! Mango Apricot, which is part of the Cherry Triple Treats, is particularly special, and we haven’t found the seed anywhere else!
Nasturtiums and Alyssum: In addition to the crops we’ve highlighted above, we’ve also included nasturtiums and alyssum in our shop. We’ve found that climbing nasturtiums make a great addition to any vertical garden, and the mounding varieties look great at the base of the Freyr trellis. Alyssum is a small plant that packs a big punch, providing season long color, and attracting a ton of beneficial insects to the garden.
A mix of cucumbers and pole beans growing vertically on the Freyr garden trellis. Alaska mix nasturtium and Regatta Blue lobelia flowers in the foreground.
There are plenty of ideas out there about how best to organize your crops. Some people believe that different plants should be mixed together so as to discourage pests or create visually interesting garden scenes. Since there are virtually infinite crop combinations, it is impossible to give a set of exact rules for planting. But in this chapter from our book “Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard”, we share some general guidelines that should make garden planning easier.