Building A Garden Arbor

Building and installing the arbor are about two days of work but you re best off spreading it over a three day weekend.

Building a garden arbor.

Building this arbor will be simplified if you keep in mind five steps in the construction process. The cedar lumber we used cost a few hundred dollars. Use a posthole digger or an auger to make the holes 2 feet deep. Rent a posthole digger or auger at your local hardware rental store.

Additionally 2 inch x 4 inch boards will be needed to temporarily brace the structure during installation. 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. 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.

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. Space the posts no more than 6 feet apart for greatest stability. 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. 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.

If you want to extend the width of the arbor increase the beam size to 2x8.