Introduction: Plant Stand for Your Backyard With Wooden Ladders

By Variint
About: Variation of engineering projects.

Welcome to my DIY tutorial to make your berries grow better. I used old ladders and wooden sticks to create a plant stand - it's quite easy, and you can adjust it to your space, so let's go and create someting!

Supplies

    • wood
    • screws
    • varnish
    • a saw
    • a drill
    • a spade

    Step 1: Analysing Your Problem

    So I saw some sad plants in the back of the garden which nobody payed attention to, so I decided to build something to make it look less boring. First, I got rid of all the weeds to figure out where the useful plants are - it took quite a while but I found the blackberries, planted by my grandfather. I also added some raspberries and blackcurrents so I had a variety of berries to eat.

    Step 2: Designing a Solution

    As I knew that there were some old ladders and some spare wood in the loft, I started to design a structure for the plants to grow around. This looks quite different to what I actually built as the back wall is solid concrete and putting screws into it would have taken a while.

    I would recommend you seeing what unused wooden objects like paletts, ladders, shelves, slatted frames, etc. you, your friends and family have, and what space is available to build your structure before starting your design.

    When the design is finished and you have your material together, take some time to varnish the wood. This will help it deal with the weather like hot days, rain, hail or even snow much better.

    Step 3: Assembly

    With a saw, I cut wood into 4 pieces with the same length of around 1.20m. This is so that 20cm can go into the earth, leaving the ladder elevated 1m above the ground. If you have neither wood nor a saw, a local hardware store will usually help by cutting wood into the right size for you.

    The ladder already has a convenient shape for plants to climb through it, so I simply attached the wood pieces to it with screws and a drill.

    The next step was to dig holes for the wood to sit into the ground, giving it stability and securing it for the plants to grow.

    Step 4: Add Additional Plant Stands

    As the first ladder worked well after 3 years and I felt like I wanted to do some more crafting, I added a second ladder and grew additional plants like gooseberries, raspberries and blackcurrents.

    Step 5: Use a Time Machine

    Now after about 5 years and 1 month, the plants are growing like never before. Lemon balm and the neighbours' cats have also now found their space with all the plants.

    If you want to, you can of course get rid of the weeds that will grow, but I like it green so they are allowed to stay in the garden. These are also a good way of keeping the rabbits away, as they usually struggle to make their way through to the useful plants.

    Now it's your turn! Get started and let the plants do the magic!