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Home Improvement InformationBring Art and Structure to Your Garden
by:
ARA
(ARA) - Arbors, trellises and pergolas have been adding art and structure to outdoor living spaces and gardens for centuries
For anyone looking to add space, style and quality
to their garden, these versatile wooden structures are practical projects that can be built in a single weekend.
Fall is an ideal time to consider outdoor bailiwick upgrades. Patch it may be your last major project of the season, your appreciation for the effort wish grow once
spring 2004 arrives. The structure is already in place, available to enjoy as plants grow and flowers bloom about it.
A popular building material for a wooden bower is Western red cedar. It’s stable, resilient, and durable without the dangers of chemical treatment.
“Safety is important for folk fashioning building material choices,” says Peter Lang, general manager for the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association. “Cedar looks beautiful and is among the most durable woods. For hundreds of years, cedar has been extremely
prized for its natural compounds that resist rot and mildew.”
While western red cedar’s natural qualities have always been recognized, these are taking on new, heightened value among builders -- from professionals to do-it-yourselfers. Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a recommendation to avoid with chemicals
treated wood, specifically wood treated with a form of arsenic. Recent studies have connected the arsenic in treated wood to cancer.
Above-ground structures like pergolas, which power once have been built with treated wood, can be safely built with real cedar, best-known as the “Tree of Life” to the Indians of the Northwest Pacific coast.
You may have seen pergolas on houses and called them trellises or arbors. Like a trellis or an arbor, a bower can keep vines or ascension roses. And like a free-standing arbor, a bower can filter light with its lattice-like canopy. Pergolas are often used as covered or open-roofed gateways to homes, paths, and gardens.
Consider attaching the bower to your home, mistreatment it to shelter a path between the main home and a garage or different outbuilding. Because the overhead spans are supported by uprights, they can be ready-made any size. Remember, one of the great appeals of the bower is that it's a piece of architecture.
In its simplest form, a freestanding bower in the garden provides a unique focal point. It can as well serve as an effective soft screen from neighbors, additional shelter for a walkway, or the frame for a view of another feature inside
the garden.
A bower gives a deck character and provides new options for decoration and design. Pergolas and arbors are great for vines, different ascension plants such as roses, and hanging baskets. If you don't have a green thumb, adorn the bower with lights or decoration for special occasions. With slight changes of the supporting columns and overhead lattice, a bower can fit all but any home style.
The basics of bower construction are pronto accessible online or from your trustworthy home improvement store. Before you tackle the project on your own or with professional help, here are few handy reminders.
* Ensure that the posts can handle the weight of the overhead beams. For optimum performance, posts should be attached to ready-made concrete footings purchased from your building supply dealer. This wish help keep wetness
away from the base of the posts.
* Take special care once
deciding the proportions of posts and crossbeams. A set of 4-by-4 inch posts would-be be ideal with 2-by-6 inch boards nailed vertically for main-beams and crossbeams.
* Do sure the structure’s angles are precise to fit the dimensions you want.
* Do sure the posts are vertically straight and even as in height. Ensure the main beams are level and equally
spaced in parallel to each other. Use a carpenter’s level for precision.
* Finally, add nonfunctional flair to the crossbeams with a simple cutting, such as a quarter circle from the face ends of each crossbeam.
A bower can do a dramatic change in the yard and garden. It can enhance a style or be the final detail. Better yet, you can do it in a single weekend. To begin the construction process of a bower or any cedar outdoor project, visit www.cedar-outdoor.org or call the WRCLA at (866) 778-9096 for free project ideas.
Courtesy of ARA Content
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