When I redesigned my vegetable garden this past spring, I knew I wanted two things; raised beds and plenty of vertical structures, including bean tunnels. Vertical vegetable gardening allows a very efficient use of space, helps prevent insect and disease problems, and adds beauty to the garden. Plus, easy-to-build structures, like bean tunnels, are so much fun!
There were, however, a few speed bumps along the way. The biggest issue was sourcing my chosen material. I could have gone with pre-made garden arches, but I was looking for something more rustic. My initial plan was to form the tunnels from 16 foot long by 4 foot wide cattle panels, which could be bent over the spaces between my raised beds to make an arch. They provide a strong support for climbing vegetables like beans and cucumbers, but they are also much cheaper than more elaborate trellises and arbors… or so I thought.
Vertical vegetable gardening; building the bean tunnels:
Once I was ready to erect the tunnels, I called around a dozen farm, building, and garden supply stores around my province, but only found one that offered the panels at a cost of $140.00 each. They also didn’t deliver and I would have to factor in the cost of a truck rental to pick them up. With four tunnels in mind, that would cost me $560.00, plus tax and transportation. Not so cheap after all.
Related post: Pole vs runner beans
With that idea scrapped, I began to look at other materials that could be upcycled for vertical vegetable gardening. In the end, it came down to the 8 foot long by 4 foot wide concrete reinforced mesh panels that I have used as trellises for years. Bonus – they cost a mere $8.00 each! I used two panels per tunnel, joined at the top with zip ties. To ensure they would be sturdy, the bottom of each panel was secured to the raised bed with a strip of wood. (see pic below).
Initially, the two pieces of mesh bowed in – not such a pretty, or sturdy structure. Knowing that this would affect their ability to support vertical crops, we installed wooden spreaders. The wood strips turned each tunnel into a gothic arch shape, which I love! They were then painted a gray-blue colour to help them blend into the foliage (the stark unpainted wood was distracting) and I quickly jotted the phrase, ‘Muster Point’ on the first piece of wood. It’s a phrase often used by the Canadian military to signify a meeting place. What better place to meet than in the garden?
Related post: Growing cucumbers vertically
The fun part – planting the beans:
Now that the tunnels were ready for beans, it was time to get planting! I picked a handful of bean varieties; Gold Marie, Emerite, Blauhilde, Fortex, French Gold, and Purple Podded Pole. I also made another tunnel for cucumbers which is now smothered with the dense vines and dangling fruits of varieties like Lemon, Suyo Long, and Sikkim.
The bean tunnels have become my favourite shady place to sit and read. Usually when I’m in the garden, I’m working, watering, or puttering. Sitting under the tunnels has given me a new perspective on the garden and gives me a chance to really observe and appreciate the many creatures that visit the space; pollinators, hummingbirds, butterflies and more.
Do you practice any vertical vegetable gardening?
I love these tunnels. My question is how much shade do they cast over the other beds? My garden is small (four raised beds) and does not get full sun. It gets morning sun, shade early afternoon and then sun again late afternoon until just before sunset when the sun slips behind the roof of the houses on the hill across from me. I would love to add this beauty and have a great way to grow bean and cucumbers. Thoughts???
Great question!! Thanks Joanne.. they do cast shade, but I chose crops for those areas that thrive in summer shade – lettuce, spinach, chard, etc. If you did a tunnel, I would put it on the north end of the garden where it would cast the least amount of shade on your other beds 🙂
Wait?! What?! Those panels are $24 each here. I fenced my entire yard at our old house. Granted this was in 2008… Now the gate panels and the tubular steel ones are that price. But the mesh shouldn’t be that high!!
I agree!! Several of my garden writing friends say they paid between $20 and $35 for their cattle panels, but the price from the farm supply company I contacted was firm.. I have no idea how anyone uses them for fencing – way too costly! – Niki
I think you were priced pipe corral cattle panels, designed to be used as fencing. The wire fencing would be cheaper.
Just discovered your blog through A Way to Garden, really like it! SLR
2020 now…. panels are 20-25 dollars for wire, 16’x50” at local Tractor Supply Store. OMaha.
My cantaloupe vines (all started from store bought cantaloupe seeds) are trained to grow up my metal gazebo. I don’t know how much shade they will provide, as this is the first year I’ve tried this. But so far they’ve very pretty & the little yellow flowers attract hummingbirds & butterflies.
In the past, when they grew in whiskey barrel planters, I even got a couple of small, sweet cantaloupes!
I usually grow my poke beans on a teepee, but you’ve given me some ideas…
Thanks Dave!! 🙂
Hi Niki!
This is beautiful! I’m also admiring your red nasturtium vine. Can you tell me what type of nasturtium that is? I love how you also have them tumbling out of your beautiful cedar beds also.
Hi Wendy – thank you so much! That is a ‘Spitfire’ climbing nasturtium from Renees Garden Seeds. 🙂 – Niki
Great, Niki! Thank you! (Also enjoyed your recent interview on A Way To Garden recently!) :)))
Anytime! 🙂 And I’m glad you liked the interview! Margaret is so much fun!
I would like to try your tunnel method for cucumbers. The cattle panels seem like a great idea. When I did a search on them I saw one that is 8ft L x 50 in. H. Is that size ok to get?
Those are the same size that I bought.. although my panels weren’t labelled as cattle panels, they’re called ‘concrete reinforcement mesh sheets’. Cheap and effective! Would love to see pics if you do this 🙂 – Niki
How wide is the path between your beds where the tunnels are? My raised bed garden of 10 years has been deteriorating for the past year and a half. This year I am redoing half of it, next year the other half. I plan to do the same with my vining plants (I liked the idea ever since I bought your year round gardening book a few years back). I keep enlarging my garden plot, and have added espeliered apple trees, dwarf blueberry bushes and black berry bushes on the outsides of the garden fencing. These trellises you designed will make my space more efficient! Thanks for your books and blog!
I have five feet under the tunnels.. In one of my older posts Niki’s Big Dig (http://savvygardening.com/vegetable-garden-design/), you can see the design for my garden. And thanks for your kind words about my Year-Round Vegetable Gardener book! Your garden sounds wonderful.. feel free to post pics here in the comment section anytime. We’d love to see you garden! – Niki
Niki I just finished installing two trellises, not tunnels, but you’ve got me thinking, at the end of my raised beds. Here in Ontario the 7×3.5 feet concrete mesh is $14.00 a piece, then I framed them with EMT 1/2 inch conduit ($6.99) secured with black zip ties and with 90 degree pull elbows ($6.20 each)at the corners. The 1/2 EMT conduit slip nicely over 1/2 rebar set in the ground at the end of beds. Sorry no photo yet. The cost was about $50.00 per trellis. The design came from One Yard Revolution (Patrick Dolan) in Chigaco.
Have you ever tried using hog wire to make your tunnels an arbours?
Hi Nancy… I have wanted to, but been unable to find it reasonably priced in my area. I’m always on the lookout for it though 🙂
Niki
I’m just reading this post. How many beans would I plant per trellis? Do I do several varieties in one area? Thank you for any insight.
Question about your rebar cucumber teepee. Do the cukes just climb up the rebar alone or do you wrap the rebar with rope or wire in the open spaces also for them to climb on? TIA 🙂
Hey Cheryl… This trellis didn’t have rope/string, just the rebar lengths. 2 plants per post. If you made a very wide trellis, I’d wrap with strong twine, but this was a pretty compact one in a home garden. Just be sure you have vining varieties and not bush cucumbers. They don’t climb so well 🙂 – Niki
Hi Niki, just picked up the 8×4 mesh panels from Kent and was surprised that they were already rusted. The staff didn’t think there was a galvanized type. Did yours rust?
Hi Meghan… yes, I’ve bought new panels and rusted panels.. but the new ones rust rather quickly. I like the look it gives and they tend to blend into the garden better when rusted. I have some that are 15 years old and going strong, so they should still last a long time. 🙂 – Niki
Hi there,
Did you plant beans either side of the arch or just on one side?!
Hi, both sides. 🙂 – Niki
How did you attach the wire to the wood you used for support?! Love this idea and really want to try it 💖
Hello, I am in Scotland and we are building our first raised beds this week! The tunnel looks a fantastic way to optimise space and add vertical interest. As a permanent structure how does this work with crop rotation or do beans grow happily in the same place each year? Best wishes from Scotland (where we don’t have humming birds!!!) PS do you need a step to harvest the top beans, it looks very high!
Gosh Carol, I wish I gardened in Scotland 🙂 I’m hoping to get to your region this fall or next spring for a visit. But congrats on your new raised beds! And that is a great question. I find my beans are less afflicted by disease than other types of crops (like tomatoes and cucumbers) so I do often plant them in the same location a couple of years in a row. I give them a break every 3rd year by planting climbing squash, cucumbers, cucamelons, gourds, or other climbing crops at the base of the tunnels. I have 4 tunnels and a lot of vertical trellises so that still allows me plenty of space for pole beans. And you’re spot on – it can be tricky to grab those top beans. I grab someone taller than me or a sturdy step stool. Best of luck! – Niki
my pole beans produced a lot the first 2weeks of June, here in north east Texas, I still have a lot of blooms but no beans for the last week. It has been in the upper 90’s, I do water every morning. Will they start to produce again or is my season over and can I replant?
With rising temperatures this is going to become a more problem issue, but in high temperatures – even with consistent moisture – bean plants don’t set pods well. so unfortunately, your plants may not continue to crop. If you expect temperatures to decline soon you can leave them and they’ll probably start to set pods again. If you’re in for a long, hot summer, it’s going to be best to pull them, replace them with a heat-tolerant veggie and then replant when temps are more in the 60-80F range.
I LOVE the look of this. I’d also love a you tube video or more detailed step by step pics so the process explained to me like I’m a toddler. 😂 (more for the bottom/attaching to the beds)
Retired to my home town in central Texas where we bought a 1947 house on a .5 acre plot. While the house is getting the necessary upgrades & remodels for 2023 life, I’m tackling the yard that has been severely neglected for 20 plus years. Getting rid of 3 different kinds of bamboo and removed the china berry trees (totally toxic, that even the bird won’t eat the red berries in the fall)! Removed 16 white oak trees, but still have over a dozen for strategic shade.
Since I’m starting from scratch & had very successful raised beds at our New Mexico home, garden plots will all be raised beds with all sorts of annual & perennial flowers strewn about to draw in the pollinators.
Since we have a local Tractor Supply Company, I will be utilizing this cattle panel idea for a variety of shade tunnels. The mid-summer heat in Texas is brutal & my side yard gets sun ALL day. Will create these tunnels to provide shade between the 11A-3P time frame. I will also be building some portable PVC-parachute frames (easy break down for winter storage) for the beds that won’t be close to the tunnels.
I’ve bean meaning to do these for a few years (hehe). I also use a lot of remesh for lower trellises and cages for tomatoes, melons, etc. I’d love an arch or two, since my garden is sometimes brutally sunny.
Question: how wide are the spreader bars?