Building A Garden Arbor

Choose a width we did 5 to the outer edge of the posts and height 7.

Building a garden arbor.

You ll need one 8 foot board for each corner and two more that will be cut and used as stretchers bewteen posts. If you want to extend the width of the arbor increase the beam size to 2x8. Rent a posthole digger or auger at your local hardware rental store. A 4 foot x 8 foot section of garden lattice cut in half will provide the sides of the arbor.

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. 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. Building and installing the arbor are about two days of work but you re best off spreading it over a three day weekend. The cedar lumber we used cost a few hundred dollars.

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. 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. Use a posthole digger or an auger to make the holes 2 feet deep.

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