Bee Trellis

In order to keep the new Saluki and the bees separate, my client, Mrs. Homegrown commissioned a trellis to surround the hive boxes that reside next to her shed. In a small urban yard a trellis around your bees will keep everyone happy. Bees naturally tend to fly upwards after leaving the hive but the addition of a fence keeps the few sideways stragglers from negative canine and homo sapiens interactions.

As usual, the design process around Root Simple begins with the realization that our 1920s house looks best when surrounded by fuddy-duddy landscaping (that flipper fence was a mistake!). Inspired by a trellis in the front yard of a house in the neighborhood, I sketched out a few ideas on paper and then spent an afternoon with Sketchup finalizing the design.

Not liking the trellis options in the Big Orange Store, I opted to build mine from scratch in the workshop. Digging, setting the posts and final assembly had to be done while wearing a bee suit, which slowed things down considerably. As usual, I encountered obstacles while digging that interfered with the Platonic idea of a trellis I had sketched out. At this point I should have heeded the advice of my woodworking teacher to, “never wing it.” Instead, I forged ahead rather than revising the plans and, as a result, ended up with slightly wonky trellis spacing and missed deadlines.

For my own sake I’ll repeat the lessons learned that I can’t seem to get into my head: don’t wing it and triple the amount of time you think a construction project will take.

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13 Comments

  1. A new Saluki?? Did I miss a post, or has this acquisition gone unannounced till now??? Please post photos of the new doggeh!

  2. That’s a terrific trellis! Not only does it accomplish the required task, but it looks handsome too.

    Around here, we generally do a certain amount of winging, but the husband spent decades working in industrial/commercial construction so the sketches he draws are mostly a bunch of lines with measurement numbers – just the bare minimum – but he has a complete picture of the finished product in his head. So far it works and everything has come out looking as good, or better, than I expected. I’m with you on the time estimates, though. Whatever the husband tells me I multiply by four; I think he’s just unreasonably optimistic.

    I must have missed the post about the new dog, too. How are the cats taking to the new addition?

  3. I think it turned out great! Also your Sketchup skills are on point! I get very frustrated with the ready made trellis options. We had to special order trellis for the skirting on our deck just because I was the fussy person who insisted on square rather than diagonal layout.

    And I agree on the photo of the dog, please!

    • Yeah, I don’t like the diagonal either. Home Depot does have square trellis but the spacing is too tight for me. I’m that fussy person too.

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