Building A Garden Arbor

Begin building an arbor by staking out the space.

Building a garden arbor.

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

Choose a width we did 5 to the outer edge of the posts and height 7. Rent a posthole digger or auger at your local hardware rental store. 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. Additionally 2 inch x 4 inch boards will be needed to temporarily brace the structure during installation.

You ll need one 8 foot board for each corner and two more that will be cut and used as stretchers bewteen posts. Building this arbor will be simplified if you keep in mind five steps in the construction process. 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. 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.

A 4 foot x 8 foot section of garden lattice cut in half will provide the sides of the arbor.