Let's See Your ARBORS and TRELLISES! Part 4

I've taken the liberty of starting Part 4 since the other thread was up to 300 posts! I just found Part 3 this morning http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/998886/ and went back and followed the thread all the way from the beginning Amazing photos and wonderful ideas to inspire you to think "UP"!

Holly actually encouraged me to visit the thread because I recently found a unique idea from The Victory Garden using rebar. http://video.pbs.org/video/1372141963/ I "borrowed" this photo of the rebar trellises featured on the show which support Bougainvillea in Robert Irwin's Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. I'm not sure if I'm up for spending money to buy 10' rebar this year but I have plenty of 3' pieces laying around and I might try a miniature model before I take the plunge!

I keep thinking about the scraps I have laying around and started looking for other projects to use rebar. Found this site for rebar trellises: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~rebartrees/ I've got a bare wall that's been begging for something vertical for years so I "pasted" one of their designs into this photo - I think I could do this! (Excuse the mess, the picture was taken as a "before" shot the week before the house was painted) The gardens in this area have been neglected for years and the trellis might be the perfect inspiration to get me busy cleaning them up and start planting :)

I've got a few arbors in the garden and I'll be back in the morning to continue the thread. If you've got arbors/trellises in your garden, post them to give us more ideas!

wow that's cool! I have to post so I don't lose this thread....

rebar trees! be still my heart, I love that!

This message was edited Feb 9, 2010 5:37 PM

Just popping in to say I just love both of those ideas. Ric likes them too so who knows what we might try to make. Holly

Wow, that first shot is just stunning!!

Amazing and not for those who shrink from big projects (like me).

or those you don't even have room for a mini version, like me :-(

That first one could somewhat be easier and shorter by starting with a conical tomato cage turned upside down and used in essence as a pattern, or even a leaning support, for the rebar. I think I may have to try that. The biggest hurdle I see is bending the rebar so that it looks smooth and uniform around the entire cone.

Ric will tell you how to do that a bit later. He says it's not that hard to bend it consistently.

I'll be among the missing today
Jury duty,hope they let me go.

Jo Ann, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

I started planting the next spring but it took a couple of years before everything started to fill in. This is what the arbor looked like two years later in September.

very nice

And this is what it looked like last May :)

We built a small deck in that area, I call it my "sitting deck". If I ever get the chance to actually sit there at the end of the day, it's a wonderful shady, cool spot with a relaxing view of the Blue Ridge Mountains :) It looked bare though so I thought an arbor over the deck would be nice. I found a DG thread where someone had built a copper arbor and thought it might be something I could do myself. It took me a few months to come up with a design but by March I was ready with a plan!

I did get the arbor started but got sidetracked when our pup got sick and the arbor remained in pieces until I finally got it finished almost two years later! I got frustrated with my first attempts at soldering, tried gluing it and then finally hired a friend to finish it for me last October. It was such a wonderful feeling to finally get it finished and now I'm anxiously waiting for spring to get it cleaned up and plant something to climb up over it!

Next arbor was a weekend project in October of 2007. We had this steep slope where I wanted an arbor at the top with steps leading to another area of the gardens we were developing.

Long story but I'll try to make it quick :) DH was going away for the weekend and I wanted to tackle this one all by myself and surprise him when he came back three days later. The arbor was easy, drove to Lowes within minutes of his departure to pick it up. I had the sales staff make some of the cuts I needed for the stair stringers and treads and within an hour I was ready to get started! I ran into a few problems with the steps and DH returned home a day early but I had the arbor and the first six steps completed when he arrived :)

However, the bottom set of steps weren't so easy. There was a tree stump in the way, problems with the slope and DH was dragging his heels to help me complete them :( Last spring, a year and a half later, we were still looking at this mess!

Last fall I decided it was finally time to tackle this difficult job and with the help of DH, two days later we finished! It took several attempts to get the stump cut down to a level where the steps would clear it but most of the work was digging into the heavy clay of the slope so we could finish the steps. Unfortunately shortly after completing them we received heavy rain and I had to cover the slope to prevent the soil from washing away :( I did get a few things planted in the area but I'm anxious to get back out there as soon as the snow melts!

Another small arbor was installed last March. We have a Weeping Spruce that was making its way into this path and needed to be "lifted". I didn't want anything massive, just something that would serve the purpose and eventually be almost hidden as the Spruce crawled over it.

Two months later, the arbor is serving its purpose and the Spruce is starting to "crawl" :)

wow Im impressed lol love arbors pergalas and such ( not sure on spelling) lol this is my arbor and garden gate to back yard only have a winter shot

Last summer I finally got fed up with the tall grass that's always falling over into the path around our pond and built this "trellis" out of black bamboo.

The trellis is working and I can finally get through the path when the grass gets this tall by mid summer!

I've got plans for one more arbor this year :) I'm developing a new area which I'm calling my "sun garden" because it's the only spot I've got with enough sun to grow some of the plants I've been wanting to plant for some time. This is my "vision" of what it will look like!

And this is where it will be located in the gardens. As Holly and some of you know, I use Photoshop a lot to "dream" about my gardens :) I've placed the arbor in the garden and pasted a few photos of plants I'm planning to include. Now all I have to do is make my dream become a reality!

Artwestallis, your arbor and gate are beautiful! I love how you've decorated it, looks great even in the snow :)

ty the green trellis's are made out of old screens I found at curb side. the wiesteria is now cut back and hopefully will bloom this year

"Old screens I found at curb side" - good use of recycled material! I'm looking at "junk" in a whole new light since seeing some of the finds on the Trash to Treasure forum :)

I thought that might be Wisteria. I actually planted Wisteria last spring on one corner of where the copper arbor was going in anticipation of finally getting it up! I'm not so sure it will grow very well there though. After watching it over the summer I don't think the area gets enough sun :(

well it grows here trust me just hasnt bloomed yet. Was to told to cut back hard and see if that helps. its been 5 yrs and still no blooms will see this year keeping fingers crossed

RCN, I noticed those muscles, too. LOL
Artwestallis, I remember seeing that pic of your lovely arbor before but I don't think that I remembered that the green accents were curbside screens. I had a pair of curbside shutters sitting down in my barn waiting to find something to do with them and my Son and DIL scarfed them up for doors on their chicken coop. By the time I figured what they were doing down there it was too late to reclaim them. That "bad" Ric did tell them they could have them, it's not like they just helped themselves.
Not an arbor but a pretty cute chicken house.

I love the rebar trees but can't see the video on how to bend them into shape.
I would love to get the information on how it is done. I actually do have a few 10' rebar poles on hand.
Beautiful inspiring arbors and trellises on this thread and they just keep coming!

The rebar you would need to bend will probably be 5/8" D or less. Two ways come to mind: first would be using a pipe or conduit bender which uses a 1" pipe for a handle, the longer the handle the stronger you are. May times you can find one of these used at a flea market tool stand, you should also be able to rent one, and cost can be $18-33. Make a chalk pattern of what you would like on a pavement or such and bend your 1st piece. Set this piece aside and use it as your pattern to prevent duplicating errors. Ric

The second way is to use a bending table method, which doesn't require a table, but 2 strong uprights, heck we have used 2 locust trees to bend things,(a boat trailer, you don't want to know! LOL). You insert the bar between the uprights and as you feed it through pull the bar against the second upright to bend it, this lets you use the entire bar as a lever. If you have a problem getting the bar to bend at the fulcrum (2nd upright), slide a piece of pipe over the bar to use as a handle and reduce the flex in the worked piece. An old bench, heavy picnic table, or deck could be used if you can safely secure 2 pieces of 2x6 to it. Ric
This video shows the principle, the difference is you are the power, and to get a gentle arc requires a lot of feed, tug, feed, tug...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClAafSDMuEQ

This message was edited Feb 10, 2010 4:18 PM

I'll repost the first pic without the copy right. Any questions give me a holler! Ric

This may be useful. Ric
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn-viper.demandvideo.com/media/db0544b4-4493-4a2e-ab16-1d53a8965b51/jpeg/1ccfa5d5-b962-4bdd-8b5e-2c47401c4177_5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ehow.com/video_5112476_pipe_bending-techniques.html&usg=__V33s6TofhWrtyPPLx0kDx8-v1x4=&h=1080&w=1440&sz=84&hl=en&start=6&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=1i6uu9PHyipgeM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvideo%2Bconduit%2Bbending%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26um%3D1

The video made it look so easy but now that I'm reading about bending the rebar and have put together the instructions I'm not so sure! I guess before I actually consider trying even a miniature one I'll have to see how easy one of my scrap pieces is to bend.

Regardless, for anyone who wants to try, these are the instructions. Check out those muscles! LOL

Using your feet to even out your bends.