The Arbor....Pergola

Earlier this summer, I began work on the arbor. Unfortunately, too many tasks surfaced with our recent plantings and, with a re-assessment of our budget, the arbor project ground to a halt. Only the pier footings had been placed, the rest was on hold.The thing about the arbor, it was an integral part of the planting, namely, having a dedicated structure for grapes to grow on and not the side of a building. Any kind of micro vineyard of mine I had envisioned became a distant dream at this point. A few grape plants purchased by Russel in the beginning, immediately became the catalyst in establishing the arbor. From this time, it was about grapes. I had my thoughts, Russel had his. I agreed and designed an arbor, do it right, do it once, with the right cultivar. Russel on the other hand, get it the ground, any way possible, who cares, on a tree, up a wall, better yet, the arbor, where's the arbor?  Thus, the "temporary" friction.

At this point in the game, our  costs were absorbed other ways like, a network of hoses and switch valves to provide water for hundreds of plants, and more plants, and more plants, and the cost of constructing a new well and pump, more hose and more plants. Our time was also absorbed keeping everything alive throughout an extremely hot summer. Water, mulch, weeding. We were codling these hundreds of new plantings while keeping the invasive at bay and clearing new areas as well. We had to stay within our budget and timeline, period.

I was fortunate enough to have some additional work come in late summer that lended some extra cash to the project. At the end of September, most of the hard, labor intensive work had been accomplished, the summer heat faded into beautiful fall weather, and I was finally able to secure the materials and the time for the arbor. Meanwhile, the grapes were still in pots and growing up the side of the pavilion. Fortunately, the cultivars were appropriate for our zone and use and we were able to transplant out of the planters and into their permanent locations without much problem. The spring will be the time of revelation whether or not our plantings had survived though, I do feel confident at this point.

We call the arbor, the arbor, though technically, it's a pergola. They both are structures, generally for a garden. The pergola is an area to sit under, an arbor to walk through, as a gateway. That's the simplified version. We just like the way, "arbor" sounds. It sounds "gardeny".  Pergola sounds like a mythological village where death reigns.

Eventually, I'll extend an electric line out to it for an outlet and maybe some ambient lighting. The base will have a crushed stone sub-base and some kind of pervious paver or stone for a final surface. At that time, I'll also finish out the planter corners. We'll let it the entire structure weather naturally to a silver gray. At this point, it's all about the grape. The tips of the beams and joists were traced out from the end of a wine bottle. Nice touch...at least, I hope it makes for a good story someday while enjoying the fruits of my labor.

So here it is.

And so, the arbor was finally was built, and it was good.