Kelly, awesome!! Can't wait to see it at the end of July, all in bloom and covered with vines. What a creative mind you have. I'll bet it's going to be beautiful.

Judith

Ferrules. Now that's a good idea. Thread the wire through the ferrule and then through the eyehook, pull the wire tight, thread the free end through the ferrule alongside the main wire, and then squeeze the ferrule together to secure. Cool.

Thanks Kelly,

I want to make a trellis like this for my peas. But I have other things to fix first.

'dillo

Great idea Kelly and GREAT explanation.

If you can't find ferrules you can use split-sinkers.
They can be picked up when you get the fishing line.

Ric

Cool. :) I am glad this made sense to people. LOL After I wrote it I was wondering if it made sense at all. LOL Of course *I* understood it..but then I also made the thing! LOL

Split-sinkers...what are those ric? I picked up the fishing line at walmart for like $2.50 and the ferrules I got at Lowes for $1.50 or something. I already had the ferrules actually though because I use them with my Kodak job..to help display cameras securly in stores. LOL I just used what I had so I didn't have to spend any more money ehhe :) (because you know $3.00 bucks is really pushing my upper limit! lol j/k)

Anyways.....if any of you guys make one make sure to take pictures! :) ehhe

-Kelly

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. Thanks for taking the time to post your plans and pics. I think I'll steal your plan to adapt to my space. Hope you don't mind.

*laugh* I don't mind at all..that's why I posted this thread! :) I figured My mother and I had taken the time to figure it out...and I would share it with all of my friends online here :)

-Kelly

That really is a great idea! I too have a problem with the morning glories because I have nothing to train them against. I could use that idea to hang them down on either side of the overhang above my door. It would create a little vestibule on my stoop. Oh my goodness, what a great idea!! Thanks!

Very cool! Now, if I can just get my little brothers to send me some old fishing line...

Kelly,
You use them to weigh down the bait under a bobber in fishing.
Just go to the fishing supplies at Wally World, etc,
They will be in little plastic cases like the hooks come in.
They are little metal beads split down the middle.
Place the line in them and squeeze them shut.
They are permanant and VERY cheap.

Ric

AWESOME IDEA!! truly genius.

I totally plan to copy it ;-).....glad you don't mind!
Madpetunia

Kelly ..

Great idea. I am inspired by this. My clematis has extended past it's trellis. Thinking it might be cool to string it along the wall somehow.

Keep us posted on the progress!

Cool,
As D. lo may remember, I do something similar with my tomatoes (string trellis.) You can sustitue, split-washers or s-hooks, or even all those extra keyrings you have lying around for the ferrules.

Sounds/looks awesome K! I wonder, though, do MG's take any sort of training here? Like tying them w/yarn etc.? Or do they just naturally dig the "invisible trellis" and head on up?
(Curious because I want to try something over my sliding glass balcony doors...of course, that's in shade all the time, so any shady vine recommendations welcome.)
teresa

Teresa - MGs naturally "twine" so if you guide them to the line, they will wrap around it. You don't have to tie them.

I love it! What a great idea.

Thank you so much!

They just took out two trees from my back yard. Those were the only two trees :( but now I do have sun and perhaps can do a bit of gardening.

Since they took out the trees now all I have to look at is the ugly wall of the business next door. With their permission, I just planted morning glories along their chain link fence. Now I am going to adapt your fishing line trellis to the building itself. Not quite sure how yet.
The building is metal the bottom 1/2 is blue and top 1/2 is white. There are some windows so I think I will anchor the trellis with some sort of stake into the ground and take those at an angle to the window and somehow link them to the window edge. Hmmmmmmm.
Thanks for the great idea.

Susan

Hey, when do we get to see the updated pictures of the fishing line trellis?

-Jamie sue

Hey guys! I haven't been around much in the last month. My job and my business are keeping me extremely busy! And besides that my plants are hating our really hot weather and it seems no matter what I do I can't keep them watered enough and happy. Of course then there are the few plants who stay too watered even though I used the same kind of soil for them as everything else that is doing ok and I haven't watered them in ages becuase they just won't dry out. And yes..they have drainage holes and they aren't blocked. anyways...every summer is a new experience! :)

As to the fishing line trellis I will take some pictures this weekend and share the update pictures soon :). I've got LOTS of foliage growth but no flowers. :( AND in the past two days I've got these annoying white little like gnats that have decided to attack the vines....where when I touch them they fly around crazy. And now the leaves are turning yellow. LOL Oh boy sounds like I've got lots of garden headaches. I guess this is what happens when life takes over and you don't have as much time to spend in the garden and baby things..or even just water things! lol

-Kelly

Kelly, what ever happend with this? did the white flies get you?

I thought this was such a beautiful idea and would love to know how it's working out, pitfalls, things you might do different next time or if it's something you would never touch again.

Donna

Hi all,

when I read about the fishing line trellis idea I just knew that was what I needed for my front porch.

If you'd like to see pics click on the link below.
it was already afternoon and most of the morning glories were closed but you'll get the idea.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: fishing line trellis and morning glories

Susan - Wow. That turned out great! I also like your cannas. Thanks for sharing! :-D

Oh Susan, that is really a tropical paradise! Ditto on the cannas - simply gorgeous.

jeribelle

i did something similar to what you have. at the end of our driveway near the house, there is a chain link fence about 3 1/2 feet tall. i nailed tiny nails to the top of our carport and ran fishing line vertically and horizontally. like a grid. i have morning glories, sweet peas, and hyacinth bean vine growing up it and from the other end of the driveway you can't see what the plants are growing on so they look like they are 'floating'. i don't know how long the fishing line will last though...

i like your idea.

Jackie/STROBE

I also used the fishing line trellis idea this year, with a pot on my front porch, and with some purple hyacinth bean vines in the ground.

For the purple Hyas, I thought some others might have some innovative ideas other than the one I came up with. Due to our severe high risk of termites here in the deep south, we do not put anything wood anywhere near a foundation of a house, including treated wood for trellises up against the house. Trust me, even treated wood will become infested with termites in no time, if it is in contact with the ground, as evidenced by a treated lumber playset the former owner's children played on here.

Anyhow, I took plastic milk jugs and filled close to full with water, allowing a bit of air space for expansion/contraction. I buried them in the sandy soil, where I wanted my fishing line to be, all but the handles. Those were where I anchored my fishing line, and they are totally covered and invisible, with Hyas vine.

These are on either side of the overhead garage door. Now...how for this gal with orthopedic problems to anchor the tops...I just looped the fishing line over the light fixtures mounted on either side of the door. I figured a bit of judicious leaf removal would be easy, should they totally cover the lights. The vines look fabulous, and I have no danger of termites from my setup. I figure the fishing line is fairly strong, and should hold up fine for a season. When the vines get nasty looking, all I have to do is snip a couple of lines, and throw the whole bunch in the trash, and re-string next year.

jeribelle

Here is a link that might be useful: purple hyacinth bean vine on fishing line

Thanks everyone. I love the way the porch turned out with the fishing line trellis. It's nice to have some privacy.

Jeribelle,

thanks for the great idea. I use old milk/water gallon jugs planted in the garden to slowly "water" the plants but I would have never thought of using them to anchor my fishing line trellis.

thanks!!

Susan

Kelly -

I loved your idea for the fishing line. My apartment has a brick wall where I'm planning my garden just crying out for adornment. I'm going to use fishing line & brick clips to make trellises for my flowers & veggies. Without your post, I would never have come up with the idea. :-)

Thanks,
Sonja

P.S. How did you imbed your pics like that? All I've figured out to do was put a URL link in my post.

I did not find exactly what I was looking for, but did get some new ideas. Thanks.

wow! how beautiful those look like!! Im not having any luck with my trellis. Last weekend Idefinitely pruned out all the foliage on my spanish jasmine because it was infested with aphids. It doesn´t seem to notice them, and was growing like crazy, but all my roses became infested every summer so...

Anyway this trellis is in a shade spot, receiving just 2 hrs sunlight insummer. The jasmine grew but it didn´t had any flowers ( well, some but very very few ), so I will try scented peas...does Morning Glorys tolerate shade? do you have the latin name ofthis plant?

Ines

That's a great idea. I'm going to do that on the balcony to get vines to climb up to the roof for some privacy and shade. And also on the brick wall.

Hey, rhapsdy, I got a Lee Valley gift certificate from my sister, and I spent it on their upscale, NOT so cheap version of the cheap fishing line trellis. I was willing to spend the $$ because a) it wasn't my $$ ;-) and 2) I'm moving in the fall and want to be able to reuse the thing in my new location; they have a supposedly easily removeable adhesive.

But I was thinking of you, and how if I were a cleverer, thriftier balconeer, I wouldn't need Lee Valley!

Zabby

Ok, all this talk got me going a bit ago and built my trellis. I had eyebolts installed into the ceiling of the balcony. I installed carabiners into the eyebolts to string the fishing line through, and chain between the eyebolts for hanging baskets.

The fishing line runs in overlapping concentric pyramids, and makes for an interesting design even before the plants started up them.

All in all, the whole project cost me about $15.

I'm adding a link below to a gallery... some of it's hard to see, because fishing line is clear :0)

Ok, update time... my morning glories are only mere inches from the ceiling now, and I've had several lovely blooms... unfortunately, they peak while I'm at work, so I don't really get to see much of them... but I'm hopefull for the weekend! :0)

They continue to grow, and branch out... seems like every day I'm training two or three additional vines up the string... some of them have 3 or 4 each! I'm definately going to have add more fishing line next season!

At any rate, I've got some new pics... some of them of the little fountain that I have now added fish and plants too :0) But mostly morning glories! The top link in the following page (2004 - 07-01 - Balcony) are the latest pictures...

Hope you are all enjoying the summer and having fantastic success with your lovelies!

Has anyone tried the fishing line idea for a plant that's relatively heavy like a grapevine or (less heavy) bower vine? I have beautiful columns that support an arbor and don't really want to train the vines around the columns, just want to insert an eye hook at the top of the arbor and use fishing line to train the vine up from the ground but adjacent to and not attached to the columnn. Thanks!

If you get the right weight (strength) of fishing line, it should be fine for those. Since it stretches over time, you might want to thread the eye hooks so the line could be tightened if necessary.

Hi, I would really like to see your pictures, but for some reason can't. I tried clicking on your question marks and going to your page but nada. Have you ever used bird netting for annual vines? It also dissappears and holds a lot of weight if you weave either 1/2" wood or steel (better) through the top.
AmyBen

Hi amyben and welcome! If you check the date that the original poster created this thread, it was 3 years ago and some of the pictures were apparently taken down. It is a good thread though, which is why it keeps coming back!! :-D

I agree I saw this and it works great on my woodin fence around my patio its the neatest thing I ever saw ,really works well ,wish they would repost his neat pictures .Angie

Just wanted to follow up and say that the fishing line has worked well so far with both my grape and bower vine, although I anticipate having to replace it in a year or two.

That's good to know that it held up a grape vine!

I love this Idea did it last year on my woodin fence worked great with Morning glorys ,Passion flowers,Bower pandoras,and best with my confederit jasmine.I think this is the best thing since peanut butter.It cheap and when it gets cold you just cut the line and bring the plants in with all it healthy growth.I even have my pipevines on it .

I'm going to put up a new trellis this year... nothing I've done before or since has worked as well! The chicken wire was not such a great success, and it was a bear to get off the railing.

I'm planning a twist this year though... I'm thinking of using white christmas lights along with the fishing line... nice glow on warm summer nights... have to make sure I add some moonflowers to the mix!

Nice idea I might do the same.

Ruggy - the lights sound cool! Am looking forward to seeing some pics of that!!!!

Well, although I did get a few pics of the trellis after it was constructed and just started getting some vines on it, I'm afraid there won't really be anymore...

Big word of advice... if you're going to embark on a large scale fishing line or christmas light trellis... talk to the building owners ahead of time and make sure they don't have any major projects scheduled that will affect you, or devise a system that is not connected to the building in any way and can be moved...

After hundreds of hours (and dollars) getting the balcony together (I think one of my best years yet) and getting some really nice vines going (trellis was about half full), The Management informs us that they are completely refurbishing the balconies this summer... stripping, patch/repair, painting (including the railing that the trellis was anchored on).

So I had the heart-wretching duty of having to rip out huge amounts of vining plants and take down all my hard-worked lights (not to mention my pond, the low-voltage lighting, take up the carpeting, etc). I have to arrange a ballet with maintainence over the rest of the plants, because they think I should be able to just drag everything off the balcony into the apartment (and leave it there for a month or two)... despite the fact that plants need sunshine (and protection from the 3 kitties I share my home with).

I'm quite despondent over the whole fiasco and am now considering moving up my house-buying plans, all because no one thought it would be a reasonably good idea to let folks know we were going to have major maintainence on the balconies BEFORE the season started. Sigh.

Thanks for letting me vent :0)

That's heartbreaking! I can't imagine having to cart in all my balcony plants and setups. I'd just have to throw them all away. I don't have room to store pots in my apartment. Geez, I sure sympathize with you.

ruggy - I am sorry to hear that! I know a couple years ago, they came around to paint over a green strip along the ceiling and front edge of my balcony that the previous building owners had put there and it was a nuisance shifting things so that they could get to where they needed to go. I know someone had posted here a bunch of years ago (maybe Janice in Ontario?) where her complex's balconies were being completely ripped out and rebuilt and she had a similar issue but worse... although she didn't have as much as many of us... But she ended up trying to garden inside that summer with a "light closet" (growing peppers, etc). There are days when I try not to think about it as I expect one of these days they will want to paint the concrete here (some have already been done when tenants moved out).

Normally they do paint the balconies on my building when folks move, but this year they want to patch and all that jazz... AND they are changing the color, so I can't be left alone. The whole building has to be painted.

So far they've cut chunks out of the edge face (covering everything in dust in the process) and started patching in the new concrete... so everything is jammed up against the inside to give them room for that. I dread to think what happens on the next stage when everything has to come in (I can't get away with moving stuff side to side for that part). They think they'll be done by the end of august or middle of september... fun! Grrrr.

It's such a mess that I really can't even sit out on the balcony in the evenings... I think I should get a discount on the rent for losing the use of 2 "rooms" of my apartment! LOL

I would love to get a picture of this, if someone can help me out. I want to plant morning glories and a variety of vines and need to cover the railings on the deck and for privacy...Can anyone help??

I have done this for 2 years now love it it works on everything here are some pics.This it the greatest thing Iv found its so easy too.
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