3 Cattle Panel Fence Ideas: Arch, A-Frame and Vertical Trellis

All three shapes start with the same 16-foot panel, about $20, so the choice comes down to ground space and crop.

An arch spans a path, an A-frame suits cucumbers and beans, and an upright panel fits a small bed, but only on the north or east side, since a south-side wall of vines shades everything behind it.

1. Arch Trellis Over a Path

A single cattle panel bent into an arch over a garden path gives you growing space where there was none.

Vines climb the grid toward the sun while you stand underneath and pick. Each arch takes one panel and four 4-foot pieces of rebar, one at each corner.

Panels usually run 16 feet long and about 50 inches wide, with grid openings of 4–8 inches, so check the model before you buy if you want tighter spacing.

At around $20 each, I’d call this one of the cheapest structures a small garden can have, and the same panel lasts many seasons.

2. A-Frame Trellis

A sloped A-frame suits cucumbers and beans better than a flat vertical panel, because the fruit hangs down inside the frame.

Hanging fruit stands out against the green foliage, so you spot it at a glance and pick without parting leaves and feeling around. For these two crops, I’d choose the A-frame over the other cattle panel shapes.

The frame also gives you growing space underneath. In spring, plant lettuce beneath the structure so the vines shade it as they fill in and temperatures begin to rise.

Lettuce tends to bolt and turn bitter in heat, so that shade can stretch your harvest by a few extra weeks.

3. Vertical Trellis on the North Side

A panel stood upright takes up almost no ground, so it is the best of the three layouts for a small bed.

Climbers grow up instead of out, and the space they would have sprawled across goes to lettuce, herbs or peppers.

Place it on the north side of the bed, or the east side, so the leaves don’t shade shorter plants. Put it on the south edge and a full wall of vines will darken everything behind it.

Beans, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and lighter squash and melons all work on it. In a small bed where every square foot counts, I’d pick this layout over the arch or the A-frame.

Anchoring and Tying the Panel

Every style gets anchored the same way: rigid poles go into the ground and the panel is lashed to them.

• Use 3/8-inch rebar for short supports and 1/2-inch for longer ones. The longer the support, the thicker the rebar should be. Rebar gives a rustic look.
• For a tidier look, choose 1/2-inch galvanized conduit. It comes in 10-foot lengths and cuts with a hacksaw, reciprocating saw, circular saw, or jigsaw fitted with a metal-cutting blade.
• Drive each pole into the ground with a mallet or hammer.
• Attach the panel with wire, twine, or zip ties. I’d pick zip ties for speed, and twine only where the panel will come down at season’s end.
• The panels are heavy-gauge and galvanized, but smaller sizes cut with a manual bolt cutter.

Planting and Training Vines

Work Miracle-Gro Garden Soil for Vegetables & Herbs into the ground around the panel before planting.

If the trellis stands in a raised bed, use Miracle-Gro Raised Bed Soil instead. Set plants right at the base, then feed them with Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed Tomato, Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food.

Green beans and peas twist or grab the wire on their own, so they need almost no help. Indeterminate tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins and gourds have to be guided onto the panel as they grow.

I’d weave each new shoot through the openings as it lengthens, and the holes are big enough for your hand to reach through.

Lifting vines off the ground keeps them away from foraging animals and soil-borne disease. The heavy-gauge galvanized wire holds a loaded vine without sagging.