I thought that I had posted this, but apparently not. A couple of winters ago, my last apple tree came down in a winter storm, and I got a relative to cut it up for firewood. I was needing an arbor for a huge wisteria vine that had been climbing my apple tree for many years. Boughten arbors are not cheap, so I was trying to think of an alternative. I remembered that I had 4 very long pieces of old rebar that was not being used, and someone told me that it was easy to bend into shape. It is easy. I bent them into rough U shapes, and since the ground was soggy from recent rains, it was easy to put the ends way down into the ground. I made a rough box shape with the 4 U shapes, and I had an old ring from a washing machine. [They used to be a wire inside of a wire with zig zag wire connecting the two, and was used to keep the laundry in the tub, but I do not know what they were called.] Anyhow, I had one of those, and wired it fast at the top the box to keep it all together. Then I put my wisteria vines up on it, and gave it a major trimming. My wisteria vines are very happy on it, and need trimmed at least twice a year, and I did not have to pay a penny for it. rebar arbor ( photo / image / picture from AAnightowl's Garden ) Here it is blooming, and needing pruned again. There is a lovely rose of sharon bush under it, but it is too tangled in the roots to move it to another location. My chicken pen is behind it, and my peach tree is in the foreground.
I LIKE IT!!! I love a garden arbor~of any kind! Great Job! That wisteria is beautiful. I don't know if it would survive in my zone or not. :-?
OK AA, I think you just solved a problem for me. I have a clematis that needs a taller arbor at the gate to my garden area. Guess I am going to have to check out HD for some rebar. Thanks
I forgot where you are at Stratsmom, but I have seen pics of them in NYC someplace, and our friend here in Poland [sorry, his name escapes me at the moment] lives in an apartment building with a GIANT wisteria climbing to the roof of his apartment building. I thought they were only a southern vine before that, apparently, they can live in more places than I thought. They make abundant seeds [try climbing a 30 to 40 ft tree to prune the spent blooms before they go to seed!] and can be rather invasive. I have heard of them pulling down houses because they can get so huge and strong, at least my mother knew of some instances of it. I always have an abundance of wisteria seeds for sharing. oops. He does NOT live in Poland, but in Romania. I was thinking of CalinRomania. Sorry Cal.