How I Used Extra Bamboo to Make A Decorative Bamboo Ladder for a Plant Trellis {Tutorial}

 

I planted a bougainvillaea last week in one of our patio planter boxes, and it needed something to climb and wind around. I also wanted something in that area that would help replace the look of the fig tree and fill up some of the vertical space and big expanse of the shed wall. The space behind the plant is quite small so it requires a narrow trellis or ladder and since I’d generally rather make something than buy it I decided a homemade rustic ladder would look nice.

As I’ve mentioned before we have a grove of black bamboo in our backyard that benefits from an occasional thinning. That means I’ve got quite a stack of long bamboo canes laying around ready to be used (I’ve got to thin it again so if anyone in the area wants bamboo for a project or for staking things in the garden, let me know). I found two thick long canes to use as the legs of the ladder, and laid them out on the ground. I just eyeballed the length and the spacing – since I was going for a rustic look I wasn’t concerned about it being perfect.

Next I took another cane of bamboo and laid it across the legs for the first rung. I marked where the cut should be and then sawed off the length with a pruning saw.

 

I put a bead of wood glue under each end of the rung on the ladder legs, and then tied the rung tightly with garden twine.

I continued up the ladder, spacing the rungs more or less evenly and gluing and tying them as I went. When I was done I put a bit of glue over each knot to help hold it in place, and when the glue was dry I trimmed the ends of the twine close to the knots.

Once everything was dry and the ladder was in place against the wall I added more glue to each joint for extra strength. This ladder wasn’t designed to hold up anything more than the branches of a plant, so it doesn’t need to be all that secure – I just want to keep it together if the twine starts to decay in a year or two.

I can imagine doing this again for other areas of the house – how about a skinnier ladder in the living room for a magazine rack?