Thanks becky. Loved the collection.

Taqiyyah and Geof - Wow! Those look awesome!!! Do the plants get enough sun using the arched cattle panels? I really like both of yours! My yard just isn't big enough to add something like that .... how I wished it was!

Dinu - You are welcome. Lots of ideas on how to make pvc furniture.
Perhaps some of these links might be helpful:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-PV...
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

In my yard, everything gets plenty of sun, except on one side of one arch, shaded by trees and the neighbor's house. Air circulation is ideal, too. I just grow beans on that side. Yard-long beans worked well last year. I'm trying rattlesnake and purple-podded beans this year.

Good idea! I hadn't thought of beans that can tolerate some shade. I really love your set-up tunnel! Perfect idea to grow vines and tall plants! Thank you for posting the photos. I can understand better how you use the cattle panel tunnels! Great job! Do post photos again of this year's crop! I always enjoy seeing photos like that. It is inspiring to me!

Don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but mine is a completely container-based plan. I use large grow-bags on each side of both tunnels, and set up the tunnels within the rows because I need them for vining veggies to save space in my tiny garden. I've not been limited in what will grow to full capacity in them, but they are all at least two feet in diameter and I do make sure the soil is freshly fed and mulched each year.

Yes! I did notice that. For a number of years, I did bucket gardening. And I still have a few plants that I continue to grow in those 5 gallon buckets. I use the self-watering design so that I don't have to water them as often:

The thread "Make an eBucket!" in Vegetables and Fruit forum

I've had great results using those buckets to grow plants in!

Here is a good video about how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Thank you--the growbags won't hold water, but I've some pots that will appreciate this.

You might be able to get the 5 gallon buckets for free from fast food places. They often toss them. Usually pickles are in those white buckets. Ask around. I got all mine for free that way and only had to buy the PVC pipes and potting mix. I also used solo plastic cups at the bottom for wicking the water up into the potted bucket. Cheap, cheap, cheap to make!

My entire vegetable garden is shadier than optimum - 6-7 hours of full sun, however the arches don't seem to make any additional shade or at least not enough to make a difference. The tomato plants on the arches seemed bigger and healthier than my others, and I assume it was due to having more space and better air circulation.

Geof - You might just be correct about the air circulation around the tomato plants growing up the cattle panels.

Geof, your tomato plants look great growing on the arch -- did you have to do a lot of pruning on them to keep them under control? How far apart did you space the plants?

@weedwhacker - I did pretty much no pruning on those plants, but there is only one plant on each leg of the arch. There was some morning glory growing on the other side that you can't see, which I did keep pruned so it wouldn't eat the tomatoes, and a grape vine cutting planted on each side too, which only go to be 18" last season. I could fan out the tomatoes and weave them through the wire. Honestly it was an after-thought. I had planted my others, and had two more plants that I wanted to grow, and hadn't decided what to plant on that arch………….and there they went. I would definitely do it again, except I think I will need the space to allow the grape vines to really get going this year. (hopefully)

I have been wanting to do espalier trained fruit trees for a couple of years now and thinking how to build a sturdy frame. I think Ya'll may have given me a possible solution. If you smell smoke I'm thinkin' bout it.

about the smoke, Ric !

That would be an awesome project -- are you thinking about doing the trees on an arch or on a pergola or something with the cattle panels? Can't wait to see the photos... !!

So glad I took a look at this forum, for a cattle panel arch turned out to be the perfect solution for this particular garden project. This is a swimming pool we had filled in and for years there were roses there, but we removed them and decided to go with lower maintenance plants. So this is a work in progress and I hope in a few months we will be able to post pics of the arch with the Peaches and Cream honeysuckles we are going to plant on either side.

I am liking it already, and I noticed you brought the top to a more pointed arch, I like that.

Thank you, Larry. My husband will be very happy to know someone likes the "Gothic Arch". This probably happened because of how the panel had to be bent to go into the back of the pickup--our pickup has a camper shell, that caused this particular shape. My husband did struggle with it for a couple of days, trying to even things out, but then we decided we like the pointed top as much as a round one.

Yes, I like the pointed top--more character!

Love that shape!!