Vine tee-pees are excellent garden structures that aid in saving on the gardening space as well as ensuring that crops grow healthily. Constructing them is indeed very easy as it only takes minutes and a few materials to get everything ready. What’s more is that a well constructed vine can be used in raising different types of climbing vegetables such as peas, tomatoes and beans. To build the strongest and the most perfect vine tee-pee, this is what you need to do:
Choose the right materials:
In making a tee-pee, you can decide to use locally available materials such as old tree branches or standard wooden poles, bamboo stakes or PVC. The other material that you need to have is a heavy duty twine or rope.
Building and securing the vine tee-pee:
Having gathered the necessary materials, the next step is to determine just how high and wide the tee-pee will be. To do this, place one stake at the center of where you intend it to be. Then, mark the distance (length and width) of the projected tee-pee and, using a chalk, draw a circle around the stake.
Along the marked path, dig three inch deep holes in which the stakes will later be placed. Also remember to leave enough spacing between the holes – preferably six inches apart.
Next, stand the rest of the stakes into the holes and secure them firmly into the ground. This is best done by putting back the dug-out soil and compressing it firmly around the stakes. It’s important that you make sure that the stakes are strongly placed on the ground so as to prevent incidences of them getting blown by the wind or falling down when there’s rain. When done, use a heavy-duty rope or a twine to secure them at the top.
Lastly, using a heavy duty rope or twine, wrap it across the tee-pee; from the bottom up. It’d be a good idea to leave a small opening (space between two stakes) so as to provide an entrance for watering the crop(s) as well as for ensuring that the foliar underneath gets to have enough exposure to air and sunlight.
Final touch-up:
To make sure that the tee-pee is good to go, you can try shaking it up a little. If it seems unstable, try to reinforce it further using more soil or stones. When done, follow the same steps to create the rest of them.
You may also go further and attach old vines onto the tee-pee so as to give it more character and stabilize it even further.
Tips:
- a) When wrapping the yarn across the tee-pee, ensure that the spacing at the bottom is more knit together than at the top. This is because younger crops have difficulty climbing than the much older crops.
- b) Always construct the tee-pee before planting the crops. Doing so will enable the crops to naturally climb onto the vine without their growth being interfered with.
- c) In case you have some plants that require maximum shading, you can plant them under the tee-pee.
