Arbor and
trellises will add a lovely touch of old world
elegance to your garden.
Adding an arbor or trellis to
your garden landscape design gives you a wonderful
way to display your beautiful plants and flowers
where they can be seen from all over the garden.
Arbors and trellises
come in an amazing range of shapes, sizes and
styles, in magnificent natural red cedar or
mahogany, delicate metalwork in copper or steel,
or durable, low maintenance vinyl. If you’re
feeling creative, building a wooden trellis or a
simple garden arbor is very easy to do yourself.
Building your
own arbor or trellis.
Designing and
building a simple trellis is a great DIY project
which just about anyone can achieve, even if you’re
a complete beginner. You may like to use a trellis
plan, but if you have a reasonably good head for
geometry, you could easily put together a wooden
lattice trellis without the need for a plan. All you
need to do is lay some small timber or plywood slats
in a crisscross pattern across two perpendicular
frame posts, fix them in place with glue, then nail
the trellis together. You then need to plant the
trellis frame posts in the ground. Placing a little
gravel at the bottom of the trellis post holes will
add stability, and provide drainage for the plant.
Building a wooden garden arbor is a little more
complicated, and will require some basic carpentry
skills and tools. A few helpers will also be very
useful. You will need to dig post holes at least
three feet deep, depending on the size of the arbor,
and reinforce them with concrete. You will also need
to brace the vertical posts of the arbor while the
concrete sets, and use a carpenter’s level to ensure
that they’re perfectly vertical.
