Arbor

Now: brown = wood, yellow = mesh, grey = PVC

Anything in my garden has to come down in the fall and be stored until next year.Whatever stuff I have in my garden has to come down at the end of the season. It also has to be easy to store in a small mount of space. If I could build something permanent, I'd be rockin it out. I hope that the arbor, cloches, and my tools will fit in the garden shed. If not, I'll keep them in my apartment. Either way, I want to keep things small for storage.


I put this together in one afternoon. I planned on burying the uprights at least 12" deep, but soil composition and the tools I have made that  too hard. The uprights are 8' long, so they couldn't be driven into the ground. To help stability, garden stakes were driven into the ground right next to the uprights and they were bound to each other. This substitute was almost as good as planting the uprights themselves. Also, the whole thing is tied to the fence around the garden which my neighbor Alexi hammered in really deep.

My last aim at strength and stability was to plant giant sunflowers along the east/fence side of the arbor. The sunflowers could make things too shady, but I'll have to wait and see.

Center Cross and Top

Zip Ties are MAGIC! Only $5 for 650!

North Side

East Side

West Side  of the "Lean-To"

East Side of the "Lean-To"

Northside Climbers: The wind twisted things a bit.
Those two verticals should be lined up.

Having a tall arbor means I can "hide" things above eye-level.
My extra trim fence hangs from the top. No one noticed the
bird feeder for days - not a popular choice with everyone at
the garden.