At the beginning of the summer I decided to repurpose two of the flimsy wire tomato cages that were taking up space in our garage into cucumber trellises.

I simply tied the wire legs of each cage together with sisal twine and placed the conical shaped cages upside down in my garden. I secured the cages by pinning them to the soil with U-shaped garden staples (the kind used to hold landscape fabric in place). I then planted a cucumber in the middle of each cage.

I’ll admit that the trellises had a decidedly homemade appearance at first. But the vines quickly climbed up the wire scaffolding and now and they look like a mini cucumber mountain! By growing the cucumbers onto a trellis, I’ve freed up space for beets and baby lettuces, and I haven’t had any cucumbers rot because they aren’t in contact with the damp soil. Next year I think I’ll make these DIY trellises even sturdier by securing them to a bamboo pole that runs up the middle. But either way the trellis is a success. We’ve harvested 13 ‘Satsuki Madori’ slicing cucumbers (pictured below) and two pickling cucumbers, and have loads more of both on the way.