Building A Garden Arbor

Similar to a pergola and gazebo but with a smaller roof these arbors can act as a trellis using lattice to support vines and crawling flowers or vegetables.

Building a garden arbor.

Use a posthole digger or an auger to make the holes 2 feet deep. The cedar lumber we used cost a few hundred dollars. This is a little shorter than most arbors but we figured if we went longer it would not allow us to be efficient about the posts because the 4x4s came in lengths of 8 we wouldn t have to cut them and waste any wood. Building this arbor will be simplified if you keep in mind five steps in the construction process.

Embedding two 4 x 4 posts into the concrete aligned so they are perfectly upright plumb sandwiching pairs of 1 x 6 crosspieces joists around each post at the top. You can build it in a day add a coat of finish the next morning let it dry overnight and set up the arbor the following day. Choose a width we did 5 to the outer edge of the posts and height 7. Additionally 2 inch x 4 inch boards will be needed to temporarily brace the structure during installation.

Space the posts no more than 6 feet apart for greatest stability. A 4 foot x 8 foot section of garden lattice cut in half will provide the sides of the arbor. You ll need one 8 foot board for each corner and two more that will be cut and used as stretchers bewteen posts. Rent a posthole digger or auger at your local hardware rental store.

Begin building an arbor by staking out the space.