See my homemade (code word for cheap and practical) arbor

My cousin decided to enable my gardening addiction (I mean hobby) by making me this arbor out of rebar (sometimes called rerod). I had showed him a design in the Country Garden magazine from this summer and he took it from there. The one in the magazine was cut into pieces and then wired together. My cousin welded mine together which I think is better. The arbor is about 4 feet wide and 7 feet tall. And better yet, it was absolutely free! He got the rebar from his employer who had extra and was going to throw it away.

I know it is not the prettiest arbor ever made but it is very practical. I envision my morning glory vines growing all over it next summer. It will be a beauty then!

It's lookin good to me. Cheap and practical are even better than store bought. Morning glories will look heavenly on it.

That's a great looking arbor. I agree, morning glories would look great on it.

Thanks Debby and Elsie. I know that it looks really barren right now but I am in the process of building a lasagna bed that is 10 feet wide and 225 long that will wind right along each side of the arbor. The photo above will be a great "before" shot.

This arbor project came about because the heft of my morning glory vines this year caused a weak arbor to cave in! The thing is absolutely weighted down with the vines. But not this new arbor! The rebar is very strong and, in fact, my uncle climbed up to the top using it like a ladder to show me just how strong it really is!

Kelly

beard, will that rebar rust? If so it will enhance the look. I think it is attractive.

That's really neat and will be nice and sturdy.

Yes, it will most definitely rust. But I don't think that will matter since the vine will cover it up. Just needed a support structure and this one really fits the bill! Thanks.

Kelly

I read somewhere that metal trellises,etc. are good for plants as they thrive on the electrically charged air during storms.........Swear I did!
............Plant cukes ...lol
shirley >^,,^< SB

I love it thanks for posting it maybe I can get me one made for next yr.

Learn to say "I just LOVE the rustic look" with flair and you'll never feel the need to apologize for it again (not that you should - it's very attractive, and won't buckle like the cheaper arbors you can buy.)

I'm with whoever posted that rust will enhance its attractiveness - have you seen all the garden ornaments that are "rustic" (or just plain rusty) these days? It's definitely a fashion trend :o)

That's gonna look great with vines on it. Something similiar can be made into an instant arbor using a galvanized welded panel available at a farm supply store. They come in 16 foot lengths by about 3 to 4 feet. It would not be quite as strong since it is built from 1/4 inch rods and would not rust. Not quite the same thing but quick and it could be painted a rusty color before it is put up.

Actually I really am in to the "rustic" look. I purchased my parents' homestead in 1997 which is an old field stone school house that was built near 1910. My parents owned the house since 1961 and I was raised there. My grandmother, who was born in 1918, actually attended grade school in my home! When my parents decided to retire to their cottage in northern Michigan and sell their home, I could not let their house be sold to someone outside the family. In light of the history of this house, "rustic" is really appropriate!

So metal is beneficial for plants? Who woulda thunk it!

Yardbird, the primary reason I posted the photo was to give others ideas. I am always combing gardening magazines and Dave's Garden for ideas. The rebar arbor is very simple to make and even if you had to purchase the rebar, it is still a very economical one to make. My hunch is that the rebar will last longer than a wood arbor. I might be wrong but I will be finding out!

Was it welded together?

Yes, mine is welded together. But the one shown in the magazine was wired together. I figure I can do that if any of the welds should let loose.

MaryE,
...The fence you are referring to is called Cattle -or- Cattle/Hog combo panels. The best for garden arches is the cattle panel,52 inches tall by 16 ft and has equal sized spacing. Where the combo has about six 2 inch rows on the bottom then the rest are square like the cattle panel,keeps 'da little piggies from squeezing through the fence. Good stuff but you need bolt cutters to cut them.
SB



This message was edited Sep 16, 2003 4:12 PM

Scooter, have never heard of the fence you are referring to. Sounds interesting.

My arbor was made by cutting 10 foot lengths of rebar into appropriate sizes and then welding them together. The stuff is fairly easy to bend. The long strips that form the arch were bent over a very large tire rim so that the arches are consistent. The magazine showed them being bent around a tree. Definitely a 2 person job!

Beardtongue, I have seen many other people making similar structures from rebar; every single one swear by it! They hold up incredibly heavy wisteria, grape vines, kiwi vines, even maypop! you name it. And to buy them pre-made costs in the hundreds of dollars. Much sturdier than wood. I envy you.

And besides, once you have vines growing on it, no one will be able to tell if it did have decorative little touches; they would be completely covered by the plants. And isn't holding up the plants the main idea?

Gotta find me a local welder!

I think welding is best but you can always wire the thing together. By the way, we sunk the thing down a full 12 inches because we knew it could get very top heavy given how tall it is. And my cousin put a bar across the bottom from side to side to make it more stable. These bars do not show because we lifted the sod and put them under it. That way no one will trip as they walk through the darn thing!

Everyone in my family thinks I am nuts for building this big lasagna bed. My cousin said he was not sure if he should encourage me by making this arbor. I told him that even if he did not make it, I was not going to stop my garden making project. I guess he could see how I was determined and decided to help out. In fact, when he delivered my arbor and set it up for me, he was scoping out my landscaping plans and giving me ideas on how to implement it. What a great enabler he has turned out to be!!!

Dang....I have a stick welder in one of the barns...shore wish I knew how to use it
"""""
beardtongue....
......Your arbor is very nice,can hardly wait for future pics :-)
shirley >^,^< SB

This message was edited Sep 16, 2003 4:06 PM

That is the best arbor I've seen in a long time. I'll bet it was 50% cheaper than ones I have seen online and 100% stronger! Nice job!

beardt, I built a lasagna style garden this spring, 4 x 8, and it turned out to be more costly then I thought. But that is the only way to go. Never till again. I will do a few more this fall but not put so many different varietys of layers and hope to keep the cost down since I will not be planting in it right away. Peat moss can break a bank.

Beardtongue-I like the strong design lines of your arbor. I want to see it when it's covered with flowers. It will carry the load without competing with the beauty of the vines!

Photos of flowers won't be available until next season but you can bet that I will post them. Along with photos of my lasagna bed. Hope to have lots and lots of blooms then!

And by the way Sue, not only was this home-made arbor cheaper than commercially made ones, it was FREE!!! Made from rebar that was going to be thrown away. Leaves more room in my budget for flowers and bulbs!!!

Anastatia, I hear you about the cost of peat moss. The literature on lasagna gardening claims that this is one of the most economical products in gardening centers. Might be, but not when you need bales and bales of the stuff like I do!

Beardtongue, I am visiting my brother's house for the first time, and I wanted to tell you about his grape arbor.

His daughter had one of those wooden playsets when she was little. Through the years, various parts were removed, so only the side legs and a part of the top connector are left. My SIL put it at the entrance to a little veggie garden, and I gave them a Concord grape vine to grow up and over it. It looks FABULOUS! And, once again, it was free. Saved from the landfill :) Since it was a playset, it had no chemicals in the wood, just very heavy-duty redwood, the beams are 4" square. Perfect! Next year when the grapevine has finished sulking about being moved (it was moved last fall), it should be even better. Maybe my brother will take photos and bring them to me. No, he doesn't have a digital camera or scanner; gotta do it the old-fashioned way :D (I don't have a digital camera either -- just a scanner.)

But when I saw that, I immediately thought of you and your wonderful arch. So many talented people making things out of their own creativity, using found items. Superb :)

Just FYI for you, there is a similar arbor in the latest Smith & Hawken catalog, guaranteed-to-rust cast iron, and they want mucho bucks for it. It's a bit bigger at 8'H and 7'W, a mere $185 plus shipping.

Doesn't that make you feel good?!?!

It sure does! Can you imagine how heavy cast iron is to ship?

That arch/arbor will outlive you. LOL. I use cattle paneling for all kinds of trellis. Beans, tomatotes, morning glories, etc. I know of some people who make small green houses out of 2 or 3 of them side to side and covered with clear plastic/shade cloth.
I got one of those $20 ones you can get at WalMart, etc. one year right after Christmas. It had silver tinsel and 3 strands of minature lights on it. Still does too as well as a Jackamini Clematis, Chocolate MG, and a Cathedral Bells vine. The lights still work after 2 years in all kinds of weather and the tinsel still looks good too. I had to brace it with 7' steele posts tho to make it stable. I have 2 more to get put together and out there with it.

The cattle pannels are also refered to as ranch or farm pannels. The ones at our local farm store measure 52 inches high by 16 ft long. That info was on the stack of panels out in the supply yard, when I get the price (inside at the counter) I will add that to this post.

Uh, dumb question? what the heck is a lasagna Bed? I love the trellis by the way. I have been shopping for a rustic trellis and they are waaay out of my price range and my DH is not exactly a diy kinda guy if ya get my drift, lol !

They go for 15$ around here

Bamasharon, a lasagna bed is a method of building a flower bed on top of an existing lawn or other setting without digging or tilling. You actually build the bed up on top of the lawn, starting with a layer of newspaper or cardboard. You then add various layers of organic materials like lawn clippings, peat, wood chips, leaves, manure, kitchen scraps and the like. Kind of like composting. This is my first attempt at building a bed like this and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it works like the book says it will.

By the way, everyone, I was fortunate to have my neighbor take pity on me and he came with a compact tractor with a scoop to move my mounds of purchased top soil and shredded bark. The bark I did not mind moving with a wheelbarrow but that top soil was pretty darn heavy! And I ended up getting a total of 40 yards of top soil and 34 yards of bark. If my neighbor had not helped me out, I would have been working all the way to winter and probably back again in the spring! It was taking me that long to move the top soil on my own. But all the top soil and bark has been moved and the bed is looking pretty grand. I am now on the prowl for some manure. My extended family continue to collect kitchen scraps for me. Who ever thought I would get excited about being gifted with garbage?!? This hobby has taken over my life!!!

Thanks for the info, I didnt want to ask but I have been following this thread and had to know! Sounds like a lot of work but very interesting. I might be able to do something like that but on a much smaller scale. Can't wait to see how yours turns out.

Beardtongue, what a wonderful neighbor! I have a few that are outstandingly helpful, but none have a tractor.

Lupinelover, he is a real angel! He worked all day Saturday with me moving all the material. I can only imagine the number of wheelbarrow trips he saved me, not to mention the sore muscles, aching back, etc. What he did in a day would have taken me weeks to complete. Now I keep walking to my backyard to admire the bed and dream of what it will look like in full bloom next year.

I just purchased Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping to get ideas of what to plant and where. Some good wintertime reading. The only problem I have now is that I need to plant my spring bulbs and will have to decide where to put them before I finalize my plans! Do you think I could move them in the spring if I did not like where I put them? Or would that just not work?

You can move almost any plant in the right season, BT.

Early summer, as the leaves start to go dormant, is the best time to move bulbs. That way you can still find them! You can move them when they are in full bloom, just cut the flowers for a bouquet to enjoy indoors. (Disturbing the roots makes the blooms quickly expire.) And they may skip a year if the foliage is not left to mostly "ripen". You can move then when they are fully dormant, but they are hard to find without slicing through some.

Some plants don't skip a beat no matter when they are moved (ever try to kill purslane? or ground ivy?) but few of these are grown in an ornamental garden. Daylilies and hostas can be moved any time, with or without soil around their roots. They just don't seem to care.

(Did you remember to follow my tired gardener presription?) And give your neighbor a big cyber-hug from me!

OH, that is AWESOME! I, too, love the rustic look. One of my favorite things in my garden right now is DHKenny's grandpa's old metal-wheeled wheelbarrow. It's well over 50 years old and man is it rusty! We thought about painting it to keep it from rusting away over the years, but didn't have the heart. It looks so good just a-la-natural-rusty.

But I think your arbor, with a little paint, could fit into other type gardens as well. A little gold for a fancy rose garden, black for an English garden, white for a cottage garden. I just love it!

Oh, and here's a pic of one of those cattle panels Mary was talking about ~ at the bottom of the pic (it's rather bent, but they come straight and, with a bit of muscle, can be bended to whatever shape you want). Around here, they go for about $16 for a 52" x 16'. They're GREAT for gardening and a godsend for ranching. They make quick and easy holding pens, as we did here for the pigs (that's a brave chicken, huh? ;). I have plans to build a hoop style greenhouse out of some of them soon. I'll just anchor one end to the ground with some u-shaped rebar (yep, GREAT stuff that rebar), then pick up the other end and walk towards the anchored end 'til it's bowed as much as I need ~ then cover with plastic. These also make great garden arches, too.

But they won't last near as long as your rebar one, Beardtongue! I have GOT to show this to DH so he'll make me some of those. We've got some old rebar around here and a welder... Thanks for the idea!

Might help if I uploaded the pic? *slaps head*

Lupinelover, thanks for the info. I planted bulbs yesterday but not sure that I will be entirely happy with where I put them come spring. Still working on layout of plants but felt that I really could not delay any longer on getting the bulbs in.

Wingnut, hope you can convince your DH to make a rebar arbor for you like mine. I think I will really love mine, especially once decorated with a pretty vine. Good luck!

Beardtongue, here is an arbor that my brother is using to hold a Concord grape vine I gave him last year. Yep, it really is part of his daughter's abandoned swing-set. It is made of hard wood, not pressure-treated, so it is safe to use on edible crops.

Lupinelover, that looks really fantastic. You had mentioned him using part of a swing-set as an arbor but never dreamed it would look so nice. Another great idea!