The Arbor Plan

We made our official announcement this morning about building an arbor for the 48-hour Blog Challenge.  An arbor has been in my mind to start the side corridor pathway to our backyard.  Now we could go out and purchase the arbor and stick it up fairly easily but that wasn't in our plan.  We had to go and make the project more difficult!  We'll build it from scratch!

Here's a rough description of the plan. First we'll put up the wooden arbor which we'll also stain a nice natural cedar color.  We debated on using paint that would match the house but paint would automatically make the arbor appear more formal.  Formality is not something we wish to cultivate in our garden. Not that there's anything wrong with that!  The arbor will tie together several garden spots like the front garden, the side border garden and the corner shade garden.  Each of these areas will act independently of each other yet add to the overall effect of one larger garden. I want the arbor to invite people in to experience the garden.  It's all about transitions. Once the arbor goes up it will serve as a doorway to another garden room.

After building the arbor we'll use various stone products and plantings from The Home Depot to highlight the arbor and help with the merging of three garden areas into one. The smoothness of the transition is very important.  The stone products will be used to outline planters and planting beds and create more "bones of the garden" to work around.

One of the advantages to building the arbor ourselves is the cost. The materials will cost less than it does for a standard ready built arbor yet it will actually be a larger structure.  Our design is a little different from other arbors which I believe is another advantage, we control everything about its design.  Next Friday on my 48-hour Blog Challenge post you'll be able to see the materials we chose to use for our arbor and very soon you'll get to see the building process as well as the finished product.  If everything goes as planned it will be complete before you know it!

Labels: ,