A beautiful
garden arbor or trellis adds a touch of elegance
to any garden.
Building your own
garden arbor or trellis
isn’t just about saving money, it also gives you
the satisfaction of having built something
beautiful with your own hands. You certainly don’t
need to be a home improvement expert or a
professional carpenter to build a simple trellis
or arbor. In fact, building garden arbors and
trellis’ is one of the best DIY projects for a
beginner. Arbors come in a great variety of sizes
and shapes, and you can build them in a variety or
materials, including natural or composite timber,
sturdy aluminum and steel, or elegant copper.
Whatever type of garden structure you choose, you
can buy a trellis or arbor kit which is very
simple to assemble and install in the garden. If
you’re a little more ambitious and you have a
little experience, it’s very easy to design and
build garden trellis’ and arbors from scratch.
You’ll find a great selection of complete plans,
guides and instructions online at home improvement
and garden design sites, or check your local home
hardware or gardening store.
Garden trellis
and arbor building basics.
Making a garden trellis
is a very simple project. You simply lay out the
trellis pieces in the desired pattern, fix them into
place with glue, then screw or nail them together.
To install the trellis in your garden you only need
to dig two post holes around one or two feet deep,
depending on the size of the trellis, and fill the
bottom with a few inches of gravel for stability and
drainage.
Constructing a large timber arbor will require a
little more work and a little more skill. The arbor
support posts will need to be set in concrete
foundations about a foot wide and three feet deep
for an eight foot span arbor. You will need to
temporarily brace the arbor posts in the correct
vertical position as the concrete sets, then attach
the perpendicular crosspieces at the top of the
arbor.
