A critical point to always keep in mind is the simple fact that building a garden arbor starts with designing a garden arbor.  Here’s my suggested design process:

Imagine and Survey.  In order to end up with an awesome arbor in your garden, you’ve gotta first get it into your head.  I got my first whiff of an arbor idea when the overall design scheme for my garden slid into my head almost two years ago.  There was an existing, scant “pseudo-arbor” (in the basic location of my new arbor) at that time, and a corresponding ugly, blank expanse of house.  This bleak tableau formed a sizable portion of the eastern boundary of my garden.  I knew I wanted to change that.  Plus, I knew I wanted some vegetative height in that location, and I knew I didn’t want to achieve it with a tree.  I knew that a structure with heavy wooden posts, a trellis covering the house, and an open grid-like top engulfed by a swarming wall and canopy of flowering vines would fit the bill.  I could already see this thing in my head.  And that’s what you have to do.  Envision your future arbor.  Once I had my vision, I had to confront the reality of what my actual garden space was going to allow me to do. 

So, at that point, I looked at my available garden space, appraised its general topography, and paid close attention to the amount of sunlight each part of the garden received.  How much space you have to work, the lay of your land, and sun exposure are super critical factors.  They’ll ultimately determine what you can and can’t do in your garden in terms of building a substantial hardscape feature like an arbor. 

Once I knew what I wanted to achieve with my future arbor (both visually and functionally), and after taking space, terrain, and sunlight into consideration, the essence of my future arbor began to form in my head.  The takeaway here is: think about what you want your arbor to do and how you’d like it to look, and acknowledge what the existing conditions in your garden space will, and won’t, allow you to do.

Of special note: In the case of my structure, I knew what types of climbing vine I wanted to grow, so I knew what kind of surface detail I needed to implement when I designed my structure.  Make sure to research the methods your future vines will utilize to attach to and climb trellises and arbors.  For example, Clematis vines use their relatively short aerial leaf stems to attach themselves to vertical climbing structures.  They can only wrap these short stems around comparatively thin/narrow members (probably not much more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter).  So if you’re planning an arbor for Clematis vines, you’ll design it utilizing slender climbing components.  Know what kind of structure and surface your climbing vines will require to actually climb, and incorporate this info into your design.

The Design: Work From a Plan.  Once the concept for your arbor is in your head, you can take one of two routes.  You can design one yourself.  Or, you can look at existing designs (with corresponding construction drawings/plans/instructions) and select one that suits your wants and needs, and field conditions.  I took the first route.  But whichever route you decide on, the critical, all-important point here is a very simple one: You absolutely need to work from a drawing/plan.*

*Building a garden arbor is no different from building other types of garden structures in terms of requiring the use of a drawing to guide your construction process.  Click here to read “Building a Support Structure for a Container Trellis” to see how even the simplest of drawings makes the building process of any type of garden structure virtually foolproof.

Note:  For the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to any architectural construction plans or drawings as “drawings” for the remainder of this article.

1. Design your own.  Again, this is what I did.  Since I possess (very) rudimentary drafting skills, I was able to make a passable set of working drawings of my structure.  I completed these after assessing and measuring all existing field conditions.  This being said, I can guarantee one fact: it doesn’t matter how good your drawings are, there’s always going to be something that arises as a result of what’s actually going on with your construction site that requires an adjustment or revision to your drawing.  Make your changes on the drawing (not just in your head) and proceed from there.  Finish your structure in accordance with the revisions you’ve made on your drawing.  It’s way easier to keep track of measurements and dimensions this way.  (In construction parlance, your revised final drawings – the ones you finished building your arbor with – are now considered “as-builts.”)  After you’ve built your arbor, hang on to your original drawings and your as-builts, and respectively (and clearly) label them as such.  If you ever need to re-work your structure, these drawings will really come in handy.
2. Use an existing design.  There are lots of sources for existing arbor designs available to the public.  There are downloadable sets of working drawings.  There are periodical publications and books dedicated to the construction of outdoor and garden structures, filled with arbor ideas and designs, with corresponding instructions and drawings.  I’ve known several people who garden and who’ve utilized excellent designs and drawings from books to build awesome garden structures.  After determining what would work best for their respective gardens, they built beautiful structures per the designs and drawings they selected from these books.  Again, your own specific field conditions will probably require at least one or two minimal adjustments to any of the drawings you find in these books.  Just as above, note and record any changes you make.  This will help you keep things straight during construction, and will be beneficial if you need to make any changes to your arbor down the road.

There are two books available from Amazon which I highly recommend to those of you who want to tackle an arbor project but don’t want to screw around with self-designing.  Although I don’t own copies of either of these books, I’ve examined both of them closely in the past.  They’re great books with great designs, comprehensive instructions, practical suggestions, clear pictures, and sound drawings.  Each one is loaded with great ideas and the concise (and easy to understand) information necessary to implement them.  Again, I recommend both of them to anyone considering building a garden arbor.  You can check them out right here by clicking on the icons below.  At the very least, these books are excellent for the really great ideas you can pick up from them.