Building A Garden Arbor

The cedar lumber we used cost a few hundred dollars.

Building a garden arbor.

Space the posts no more than 6 feet apart for greatest stability. If you want to extend the width of the arbor increase the beam size to 2x8. Use one of these arbor plans or kits to build a statement piece for your yard or garden to welcome guests into your garden guide them through a walkway or just be a simple structure to provide a little bit of shade. Begin building an arbor by staking out the space.

Building and installing the arbor are about two days of work but you re best off spreading it over a three day weekend. 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. A 4 foot x 8 foot section of garden lattice cut in half will provide the sides of the arbor. Additionally 2 inch x 4 inch boards will be needed to temporarily brace the structure during installation.

Rent a posthole digger or auger at your local hardware rental store. You ll need one 8 foot board for each corner and two more that will be cut and used as stretchers bewteen posts. Choose a width we did 5 to the outer edge of the posts and height 7. 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.

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.