Sticks, Neighbors, and the Art of the Pea Trellis

We’ve been wanting to build pea trellises out of sticks for a while now. Bill has had it on his radar, and when a couple of nasty storms rolled through Eastpointe this week and left everybody’s yard looking like a stick graveyard, he saw the opportunity. Perfect storm. Pun absolutely intended.

The idea was straightforward. Peas need something to climb. Storms knocked branches out of every tree on the block. And we’ve got a community full of people willing to get creative on a Saturday morning. So we put the word out – bring us your sticks, your branches, your storm debris – and let’s turn them into something the Giving Garden can actually use.

Twelve people checked in today at the Eastpointe Community Garden. It was 44 degrees, overcast, and honestly? One of the best ways to start off the season. Not because of anything fancy. Because of who showed up and what we built together.

How to Build a DIY Pea Trellis From Sticks and Branches

Bill and Jen got to the garden around 9:15 and immediately started organizing the donated sticks into piles, sorting them by size and mapping out the layout. Neighbors had been dropping off branches all week, and Zach hauled a whole load over from his house. Between all of it, we had more than enough material to work with.

By the time Michael arrived around 10, the planning was done and it was time to build. He and Bill knocked out the remaining three large frames in no time. Zach and I rolled in around 10:30, and we finished the last three smaller ones. Six frames total. From there, the real fun started – everyone grabbed sticks and started weaving branches into the frames as a group.

Six pea trellises. Built entirely from storm debris and donated sticks. Zero dollars spent.

If you’ve never built a trellis from sticks before, the process is pretty simple. You build a frame, then weave smaller branches through it in whatever pattern makes sense to you. The peas will climb whatever you give them. There are no wrong answers. That said, some of the answers today were more interesting than others.

Every Trellis Has a Personality

I didn’t expect trellis building to be this much fun. Each one turned out completely different depending on who built it, and that made the whole thing way more entertaining than I anticipated.

Jen’s was clean and symmetrical. Methodical. The kind of trellis that looks like someone actually measured things before tying them together. Zach’s? If you’ve ever seen the Blair Witch Project, you’d recognize the vibe. Bill’s had some real gems woven into it – because of course it did. The man has a gift for adding character to everything he touches.

A new family that recently moved into the neighborhood came out with their two kids and built the one with the diamond crosshatch pattern. That thing looked like a professional made it. Meanwhile, Michael and I partnered up, and I’m going to be honest – there was no rhyme or reason to ours whatsoever. Sticks going every which direction. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was the best one I made all day.

That’s a stick pun. You’re welcome.

Why Community Gardens Are the Perfect Third Place

Something that stuck with me today was how many of the conversations had nothing to do with gardening. People were catching up, cracking jokes, getting to know each other. The trellises were almost secondary to the connections happening around them.

There’s a concept called a “third place” – a spot that isn’t your home and isn’t your workplace, where you can just exist around other people without an agenda. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term back in 1989, and it’s been applied to everything from coffee shops to libraries. But community gardens might be one of the best examples out there. Research has found that community gardens can serve as third places that reduce social isolation and help neighbors connect informally – the kind of casual trust-building that holds a neighborhood together.

We saw that play out in real time today.

A woman stopped by who’s been following us online for a while. She’s involved with a foundation and wants to explore ways to support the garden and partner with us in a meaningful way. Turns out she’d been having a conversation with Bill through Facebook. She didn’t know it was that Bill. When she asked if William was around and Bill turned to face her, the look on her face was priceless. “Oh, you’re Bill.”

It gets better. She lives two doors down from him. Two doors. She’d actually brought Bill up to the foundation as an example of someone doing good community work – not realizing that the garden she was reaching out to was her neighbor’s project all along. You cannot make this stuff up.

Then there’s the new family we met a few weeks back. They came out again today with their kids, built a trellis together, hung out in the hammock, and the kids helped fish garbage out of the pond using some of the donated sticks. They turned cleanup into an adventure, and they were a huge help. If you’re reading this -thanks again 🫶

These kinds of connections don’t happen in a vacuum. They happen in places where people feel welcome enough to come back. That’s what a third place is. And that’s what the garden has become over the years.

Around the Garden

Lisa stopped by with Luigi and did a walkthrough of all our blueberry plants and fruit trees. From what she shared with me, everything is looking healthy and on track for the season. It’s always reassuring to have someone with that kind of knowledge keeping an eye on things.

We also finally took down the holiday lights from our Winter Solstice event. Michael handled most of the work on that front, and I helped where I could. I say “helped” loosely. His lights were wound up neatly, organized, and ready to go back into storage. Mine looked like a toddler wrapped them. We all have our strengths. Winding up string lights is apparently not one of mine.

One of our garden friends, William, brought an old-school popcorn popper down to the fire pit after I had already headed home. From what I heard, it was a hit. First time any of us had ever seen one of those at the garden. The fact that we now have a fire pit, a bonfire tradition, and freshly popped popcorn in the mix feels very on-brand for this place.

The city is also installing new street lights along Nine Mile Road as part of last year’s street replacement project. A crew pulled up to the garden today and had a brand new light installed in maybe 20 minutes. The new lights look great, and it’s cool to see the city continuing to invest in the area around us.

Bill and Jen picked up subs from East Detroit Bakery, and we capped the day off with a bonfire. Forty-four degrees, sticks crackling, good conversation, and apparently popcorn. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday in Eastpointe.

Come Build Something With Us

The Eastpointe Community Garden is open every Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM at 16425 Nine Mile Road in Eastpointe, Michigan. No experience necessary. No sign-up required. Just show up.

Whether you want to get your hands dirty, learn something new, or just hang out by the fire with some popcorn – there’s a spot for you here. The soil doesn’t judge, and neither do we.

We’ll put you to work. Or we’ll let you chill in the hammock. Your call.

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