You want to create a shady place in your garden? For example, what do you think of building a vine arbor?
Many have a parasol, a summer house or a garden pavilion in their garden, which should provide shade on sunny days. However, if you want something original for your garden, you can also build a vine arbor, for example. This can look very different in the garden. It can be e.g.:
- spread a modern, Mediterranean flair,
- or create a hearty Heurigen feeling,
- and/or provide shade.
Depending on which style you prefer, you can of course use a wide variety of materials to build the vine arbor, such as metal tendrils, wooden beams, bricks, etc. We would like three design options for how you could build your vine arbor, for example Introduce you here in more detail.
3 Design Options for Vine Arbors
Design option no. 1 - wooden vine arbor
As the name suggests, the wooden vine arbor is mainly built from wood as a raw material. A wooden terrace floor can also be used as a floor covering. However, it is important that you make sure that there is enough free soil around the vine arbor so that you can plant the required number of vines, depending on their size.
If you stretch metal cords or metal cables in the roof area of the vine arbor in addition to a few supporting wooden beams, the vines can easily climb along there and give your vine arbor an optimally green roof.
Important: When building the vine arbor, you must attach great importance to stability, because in the future you will often have to climb around on the roof to fix shoots.
Design Option 2 - Metal Vine Arbor
Metal arbors usually have a lawn or stone floor. You can also buy appropriate metal pavilions for this purpose in specialist shops, which are excellently usable as vine arbors.
You must anchor these pavilions well in the ground and plant vines all around. The great thing about such a metal vine arbor: the bar spacing is usually the same hereso small that you no longer have to insert any additional climbing aids.
Tip: You should make sure that the pavilion is as tall as possible. Since wasps like to hang out on the grapes or vines from time to time, they could come unnecessarily close to you.
Design option no. 3 - plant terrace/balcony
You can also shade an existing terrace or balcony with fast-climbing vines. So you don't have to build or buy a suitable frame beforehand. So that would be the cheapest way to build a vine arbor.
If you have a covered terrace, however, you should check whether the roof is stable enough. Because, as already described, you have to climb around on the roof to fix the shoots and also for the pruning.
Plant grape arbor
Select and plant varieties:
The centerpiece of a vine arbor is of course the vines planted all around. And here you actually have a completely free hand, because you can grow just one or many different varieties at the same time - e.g. blue and white grapes.
Once you have decided on one or different types of grapes, you can plant them. However, spring is the ideal time to plant vines - after the ice saints!
Tip: In the entrance area you can also plant climbing roses instead of vines, which results in a more varied picture of the flowers.
Attach vines:
So that the vines can climb up to the roof, you may only fasten (tie) the so-called old wood to the posts. The new shoots, which are up to 6 meters long, then grow steeply upwards and can be fixed piece by piece on the trellis with special plant wires or plant clips.
As soon as the vines begin to bear fruit, the shoots become heavy and almost automatically lay down on the roof surface. Once this is done, you must carefully fix it. After just a few weeks, the tendrils will then intertwine and ensure a shady spot.
Tip: If the vines bear too many fruits, you should cut off some grapes in good time so that the remaining fruits can grow larger and juicier.
Pruning back vines:
Of course, you have to restore the vines of the grape arbor a certain time after the harvestcut back. However, this cut should only be made in February/March - depending on the weather and the risk of frost. Another advantage is that the vines have long since lost their leaves and the individual shoots are clearly visible.