@beckygardener...super article. What is the red-orange stuff you are using for mulch? I am dying to know. It is so attractive. I am always looking for ideas for vines and this is great but will not work for me here in Mexico. I really don't think we have feed lots. All the cows and sheep i've seen appear to be free range, plus the wooden supports would not survive a year...no wood in the garden. Ah me

Beverly - Thank you!

I am sorry to hear that the Feedlot Panel Arbor is probably a no-go for you because of the availability of materials.

The mulch is called "Red Mulch". LOL! I don't know what wood it is .. pine probably, that has been dyed a reddish color. It does fade though to a brown over a year, but looks nice for quite some time. It actually looks nice as brown too.

Red Mulch:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unb...

Thank you Becky...your garden really does look great. Yes that mulch is probably Pine which will not work here. I believe the dye that they use is vegetal and not at all harmful to your garden, Don't you have termites where you live? We have termites that have larger homes than i do...it really does look good though. I've seen similar at the Home Depot here too but it is a deeper color red and doesn't pop like your's does.

Awesome information. Thank you. 😎

That mulch is called "enviro mulch" it is made from shredded pallets and dyed.
It comes in red, black and brown.
Available at most garden centers. It is available in bulk (by the yard) in my area.

Beverly - Yes, I do have termites in my area, too! I only add wood mulch around my yard away from my home by at least 5', but usually more. I actually use that awful rubber mulch up against my house in the garden beds bordering my home. I hate that stuff, but it helps keep termites away from my home. Termites are like dirt ... they can be found just about everywhere. I just consider them like fungi that helps to break down wood for the soil in my yard. LOL!

BTW - My red mulch was a deep red. Scattered on the ground and allowing it to dry out lightens the color. In the bags, they are usually wet or moist which makes the color darker. They eventually turn brown from the sun, which fades the red dye.

Paul - Interesting. I didn't know it was made from shredded pallets. I do see the other colors here, but I prefer the red color. Anything to attract hummingbirds!

@ Beverly, another thing you could use for the uprights besides wood is steel fence posts (Tee Posts). They come in 5', 6', 7' and maybe 8' and you can purchase clips that attach the fence panels to the posts. You would need a fence post driver to drive them into the ground which you can probably rent and you wouldn't need any concrete. It may not appear quite as elegant as Becky's but the finished project could be painted with a good rust inhibiting spray paint and once covered with vines the arbor would look similar. If you can not find the livestock panels in your area you could use a heavy (steel) concrete reinforcement mesh as dirtdouphins said in another thread on this subject (click here) but you would have to look at what's available to see if it would be strong enough to support the weight. The steel posts may tend to bend outwards some what because of the spring of the bent panel so you would have to over-bend the panel until it holds it's finished shape before you place it between the posts, this would be a trial and error method going a little further together each try until desired form is obtained. Even if you over bend it the clips would hold it to the posts.

Thank you Tom @TomPNW for sharing your good ideas. You know i had vines that were still in their germination pots and i thought i'd better go up to Home Depot and buy some supports, like some kind of arbor or arch. I needed something more than a trellis (one of the vines was a Passiflora). I was so clueless! It never occurred to me that i couldn't buy anything ready made to just walk out the door with So then i had to get creative. I tried a variety of ways of making a good support, i did purchase 5 6' tee posts (for the frame) ,and was going to get some cyclone fencing, and then i wasn't sure what i was going to do I tried making things from pvc pipe, and jute, and all the other things that would not disintegrate or be eaten in my environment. I thought about chicken wire too but that stuff is so lethal with sharp points sticking out everywhere. And i didn't want to see my butterflies impaled on the support so gave up on that idea. I didn't really have time to deal with this properly. I found (at Home Depot) some 8' long steel shelving that was part of some modular unit that i used with some success for a few years. Then i went down to my friendly neighborhood iron working shop and had them make me a proper arch (not without a lot of drama from the diva welder during the process). I did see the article about the masonry ladders and this appeals to me and i think i could do it easily, but i haven't found the ladders yet. They must be somewhere and i am keeping that option in mind. Right now the vines are doing well, but i always have my eyes open for new possibilities...a like to browse the plumbing section...i have found some good and inexpensive things that work well in the garden, plant supports for example. It's really nice to have people to bounce some ideas around with. ATP is such a super place.

diva welder
I have one of those and he does some amazing stuff for me
We tried some masonry ladders and found them too flimsy, too narrow, and too short for my crazy desires
sorry bout the weird background here, but this is a free-standing or self-supporting arch (sort-of loosely patterned after the idea of what I wished that a masonry ladder could do but it could not, so this was born)

It's cool too, you can't really tell from this angle, but the parallels are not really parallel so it's got some neat shapes within the plane of the arch (best appreciated from the end-on views) that you cannot get from a masonry ladder.

I am not at all bothered by the rust thing and I actually prefer the color.
Also--I have not experienced a rust related functional deterioration of any of my garden accoutrements (aka junk), much of which predates my existence.

@dirtdorphins...that arch looks great dirt! Did your welder make it for you? Is it rebar? tubular? solid? and does it bend or was it made in pieces? And how wide is it? Unfortunately my diva welder is a and not a I had given them a photo from the internet of what i wanted. I had given them the exact dimensions in centimeters of the height, width, and space between the horizontal bars. I had told them that i had already planned on how to seat the ends into the earth so they should use my exact dimensions and not make any adjustments. They had a photo, the hand written dimensions, and a sketch i had made.

They had never made a garden arch before. Gardening is not a part of the culture in Mexico, but interest is growing among the 20 somethings now. Of course people have gardens but most would not pull a weed and they hire gardeners to tend them. Still, my diva welder listened to me attentively, took the papers i had prepared, and proceeded to do what he thought would be best. He put metal wings on the bottom of the four legs that would go in the ground, he added over a meter (3.3 feet) of height to the structure. Then, when the structure was completed except for the paint, they called me up to come take a look at it. I told him he had to cut each leg 1/2 meter off each leg and no wings on the bottom 4 pieces that would go in the ground. The owner was not in the shop and the diva welder was very angry and would not do what i asked stomping away to his work space. The young woman who was the office assistant and i looked at each other...she knew exactly what i was talking about...we laughed a little bit but not so the diva welder could see or hear. She told me she would talk to the owner when he came in. So i received the arch with the legs cut down, but still 1' taller than i had requested and i decided to count my blessings and not make a fuss about the extra foot. So, if your diva welder ever wants to take a trip to Mexico, let him know there is a woman in Colima who needs something like you've got, okay? Thanks

Thank you!
yes--my welder is my sweetie
It is solid steel stock 3/8in and 1/4in and was made in pieces. It bends and the 4 legs go into the ground. It is about 16 inches wide and the arch spans about 8 feet over a garden--it is not a walkway. (hopefully the rose that I want to be mostly horizontal across it will get with the program this year since winter did not cripple it so badly this time around)
I'll let you know if we ever make it that far south

I think I didn't give dirtdorphins the right specs last night - so I created a drawing of the arch. It's not to scale at all, but the measurements in it are on for what it is.

It was flat when I put it together (welded it on the driveway) and we made the curve when we put it in the garden. I made the curved piece first, then attached the sides/rungs.

Do with it what you will. I'm sure you can modify it for your needs...or a semi-clever welder could put something similar together just with the drawing and this description.

The neatest thing, like Dirt said, is how it looks from different angles. That curve and varied outside rung length really do something tricky with shapes.

Is the curve piece a pattern on the flat and straight metal trellis/arbor BEFORE it is actually installed as an arch? It's just a pattern on the metal work, am I correct?

I'm not sure I understand the question. So I'll explain the put-together process and see if that helps. (the drawing is in 2-D looking down on the un-bent trellis that's sitting flat on the driveway)

I laid out 2 straight pieces about 10-11 feet long...and bent them on the same curve. I then welded the rungs onto them at 10" intervals. It's flat on the driveway at this point. Then I took 2 more straight pieces and placed them about 16" apart and centered the flat, curved piece between them. And then welded in the side rungs. At this point, the entire thing is still flat on the driveway. Then, Dirtdorphins and I carried it to the garden, inserted one end, and then made the bend and inserted the other end. We missed the target a few times and installed and reinstalled until it looked right.

Did that answer your question?

So the drawing of the arbor in your photo above is what it looks like looking down at it as a flat object? And the curved shaped piece welded in the center is actually flat too to give it an unusual pattern?

Yes, exactly. It's what it looks like before it's arched. It was a 15' long flat object that we carried out before we bent it into the arch/arbor shape.

Imagine it as a ladder with really funky rungs lying flat on the driveway...then we drag it into the garden and bend it into an arch there.

Thank you @evermorelawnless, Asa! This is really super! You and dirt make a good team Now that you two have done all this work, i'll bet the members would appreciate it if you write it up in the ideas section. This is exactly what i was thinking of for a second arch...long over an expanse of garden space. The plants growing under would still get the sun an an angle but would be protected by the overhead sun. You both are so generous to share this with us. Of course, @beckygardener who started all this, offered a great idea as well but just not one that would work for me.

I have some number of trellises scattered over the yard that I've made. I'll put together an article/idea over the next couple of weeks complete with photos and maybe even a to-scale plan or two.

I'm really a novice welder, but trellises are a good thing for me to start with because they don't have to be perfect - nor is anything particularly critical about them failing, if they do (versus welding a trailer or something on the car). Nice things to learn on.

I will look forward to your article. You have given me an idea...i will start looking for a novice welder who has an interest in experimenting a little bit and who might appreciate the opportunity to practice and who has ideas and who will not throw tantrums

sounds perfect
trellises and such are a wonderful thing to experiment with for a learning welder and in the end the garden gets trellises win-win
Thank you for encouraging the article--Asa has some great stuff to share
(I was going to show some more pictures, but I don't want to highjack Becky's article or spoil Asa's--so you'll just have to wait )