Spice Up Your Landscape With A Garden Arbor
Garden arbors can be used for much more than support for your plants. When the plant starts to grow through out the arbor it can make a lovely focal point and might even provide a little shade to a garden bench to sit and enjoy the outdoors. There a lots of varieties of climbing vines that can be employed if the branches are thin enough to train and move. The most common plants seen on arbors are ivy, jasmine or climbing hydrangea. For a sweet aroma honeysuckle or wisteria can be plants to consider. Another plant to consider might be climbing roses, they can look great with proper care and training.
Cedar and redwood can be a good choice to build the arbor, along with a concrete pre mix to set in the post. Galvanized screws, nails, and bolts should be used as they are rust resistant. Among the tools used will be a ladder, saw, drill, hammer, and a level. These are common tools to many homes. The complexity of your garden arbor might require the use of more tools.
If you are constructing the garden arbor from scratch it will be necessary to locate plans. Arbor plans can be found in do-it-yourself books available at your local hardware store. There are numerous arbor plans available on the Internet and the majority of them can be found for free. Arbor designs can range from simple trellis styles to the complex pergola designs.
Something to consider about building a garden arbor yourself is whether or not you have all the needed tools or if you will have to purchase new tools. Also think about the time you will need to complete this project. A simple arbor can usually be completed during the weekend by many folks. If you do not have the time or are going to require tools, an arbor kit can be fast to set up with very basic tools.
Kits can be purchased at many home improvement centers or on line in many different designs. Cedar and redwood are common wood choices. If metal is more to your liking there are kits made of aluminum and iron. If you are getting an iron kit look for hardened powder coat iron for a longer lasting arbor.
Various plans might be able to be obtained free by searching the web, such as garden shed plans, picnic table plans, dog houses, as well as blueprints for arbors.
Posted in Landscaping
