  We study the spin-1/2 trellis lattice Heisenberg model, a coupled spin ladder
system, both by perturbation around the dimer limit and by quantum Monte Carlo
simulations. We discuss the influence of the inter-ladder coupling on the spin
gap and the dispersion, and present results for the temperature dependence of
the uniform susceptibility. The latter was found to be parameterized well by a
mean-field type scaling ansatz. Finally we discuss fits of experimental
measurements on SrCu$_2$O$_3$ and CaV$_2$O$_5$ to our results.
