DIY Garden Obelisk

Out of the many foods we’re growing, several are considered “climbers”! Snow peas, pickling cucumbers, and pole beans. For the peas and cucumbers, we just constructed simple trellises at the end of each garden bed with fence posts (the same as we used for the compost pile) and a ball of twine.

For the pole beans, we needed something a bit taller. They require a height between 6 and 8 feet tall! I browsed all the stores around us, and though they sold trellises or frame obelisks, none were in my price range. Some were well over $200! Nope, too much for me.

I went on the hunt for some affordable materials at Home Depot.

SUPPLY LIST: One 6 foot tall, 4-sided garden obelisk

x4: 2 in x 2 in x 8 ft boards

x4: 1 in x 2 in x 8 ft boards

x56: 3 in galvanized wood screws

Oil-based outdoor paint

Oil brush

Dropcloth

Mineral spirits

I found my lumber in the “hobby wood” section. The 2×2 pieces were $2.07 each, and the 1×2 sections were $1.16 each! Can’t beat that! It’s untreated wood, so I had to seal it. I found a can of oil-based outdoor paint for $7.62. Make sure you use oil, latex will quickly peel off your wood. I then found a decorative fence cap (finial) made of treated wood for $3.97 to top it all off! A box of galvanized wood screws ran $9.37

Unexpected costs were an oil brush for $7.97, odorless mineral spirits to clean my brush for $8.28, and a disposable drop cloth for $1.98

TOTAL DAMAGE: $52.95

I had scrap wood around the house leftover from the last homeowners that I used to create the square cap on the top. Tools I already owned: work table with clamps, handheld circular saw, paint bucket, and a cordless power drill.

Because our garden beds are already raised with foot tall sides and I’m only 5’4″ on a good day – I opted for the minimum height of 6 feet for the obelisk. I browsed Pinterest and Google until I found a style that would work for our needs. The nice thing about this design – NO PRECISE ANGLE CUTTING AND MATCHING. I like to keep it simple.

First thing was to determine how wide the base of the obelisk could be. We have 2 feet between already planted rows to work with, so we measured our base to be around 1.5 feet wide. This created a nice taper and allowed for growth. Something you have to remember is that all the rules for spacing between rows and plants go out the window when you use raised beds. You have the ability to plan much more densely.

The obelisk was built by constructing the one side first. The horizontal sections overhang the vertical poles by approximately 1.5 inches. There were no approximate measurements made, we just worked our way from bottom to top and ended up with just the right amount of wood!

We then used the first constructed side as a jig for the second, clamping the vertical poles together to keep the angles the same (or as much the same as we were able, one board was warped). Horizontal rungs were measured by matching them to the first piece and just marking with a pencil.

When we started to construct the third side, to keep from having to measure angles, we screwed the horizontal pieces just above one another. It actually created a visually appealing effect. I do recommend to alternate working on each side, as it stabilized the piece quickly. For example, do the bottom rung on each, and then the second from the bottom – working your way up.

The ONLY pieces I took the time to angle cut were at the decorative top to hide the angled tops of the vertical posts. We thought about sawing the verticals level, but for simplicities sake, we didn’t. We just took the square of wood cut for the top and placed one screw each into the vertical supports from the top. I then screwed a second square of a smaller size in the center to give it more body, and finished it off with the finial to give it some character! The finial already had a screw built into it, which worked perfectly!

ADVICE: screw slowly, don’t “horse it” as my husband kept telling me NOT to do. Hobby wood likes to split. I got lucky, and only one horizontal piece split at the very top. Wood glue, a clamp and many hours later – I was able to re-screw the piece without issue. The only piece we drilled a pilot hole for was the finial, as that screw bit was quite large.

I then finished off the piece with two coats oil based paint. Take the time to let each coat dry completely, and don’t forget to paint the underside and raw edges of each piece! This will help protect the untreated wood from water damage down the road. I hope you enjoyed this adventure in DIY! Go forth and craft!