Making DIY trellis netting is a very straightforward matter of tying strings into a grid of open squares or rectangles. The dimensions of the squares can be made to suit the kind of cucumber net we intend to support. A trellis net for flower vines, such as morning glories, might look prettiest with strings tied every three inches. However, a three-inch square grid might not have big enough spaces to allow for harvesting of peas or beans. With vegetable crop vines, we want to be able to stick our hands through the netting to pick the peas growing on the other side of the net. A good grid size for peas or beans is four inches. The more spaced apart the knots in the grid, the quicker it will be to make the netting.

To begin, we need some kind of frame to hold horizontal strings taut while we tie on the vertical strings. If chairs with a tall straight back are available, we can place two chairs side by side and use the backs of these chairs as our frame. However, since not everyone has this kind of chair, this article will continue by showing how to use a door as a frame, since nearly every home has doors.

The items we need to make the trellis netting are: Cotton string, (nylon and jute string tend to be too slippery to hold the knots fast) masking tape, and a pair of scissors. To determine the length of our horizontal strings, we can tape the end of a piece of string to the front side of the door near the hinge, wrap it around to the back side of the door near the hinge, and add another few inches for good measure, then cut. Having determined the correct length, we can cut the rest of the horizontal strings. The number of horizontal strings we cut depends on how wide we want the finished netting to be and how big the grid pattern we’ve planned. A door can potentially accommodate the making of a six-foot wide trellis net, if we band horizontal strings across from nearly the top to the bottom of the door.

Once we determine the size of the net and have cut our horizontal strings, we can tape them around the door. Place a piece of masking tape on one end of a cut piece of string, attach this taped string end through the hinge opening to the back side of the door pressing firmly. Then wrap the string around the front of the door, then the back of the door and capture the end of the string under the piece of tape placed earlier. One by one we can wrap the horizontal strings in this manner according to the spacing we’ve planned. To make sure the horizontal strings will stay in place, it’s a good idea to affix another piece of tape on each string at the outer edge of the door.

The next phase is to tie on the vertical strings. These are spaced according to the chosen grid size and knotted tightly at every intersecting horizontal string. When all the strings are tied together into the net, the pieces of tape can be removed and the net will fall away from the door frame. The netting is now ready to hang on a trellis in the garden to show off our beautiful flowers or support a crop of vegetable vines.