Enhancing your Garden with a Trellis, Topiary or Arbor?

How to choose one & random other points to ponder - Fionuala

Trellises, topiaries and arbors are garden structures that provide vertical support for climbers, vines and other upright-growing plants. They're available in a variety of different materials, sizes and designs, from simple jute or nylon netting creations, to complex, hefty, wood and metal structures. Whether your landscape is filled with flowering ornamentals or geared more towards growing vegetables, incorporating an arbor, topiary form or trellis into your garden design enhances its beauty and functionality. With so many materials and styles to choose from, narrowing down to a favorite material alone can be difficult, so we did the work for you! Our favorite all time trellises and arbors are made locally, using American steel, and come in a fabulous array of choices. Plus Artisan Trellis also makes topiary forms and garden adornments too! These beauties come out tops every time for durability, eye-appeal, strength and versatility and are the perfect choice if you're enhancing your space whether its a formal rose garden or a humble veggie patch. But first let's discuss the whys and wherefores of trellises, topiaries and arbors in general.

Why Add An Arbor or Trellis to Your Garden?
Maybe you've always loved flowering vines but don't know where to start when it comes to growing one, or you've suddenly decided to delve into the world of climbing roses. Perhaps you've totally run out of space in your edible garden and long to grow more tasty vegetables, or simply have a landscape that is crying out for vertical interest. Trellises, arbors and topiaries to the rescue every time! They offer several benefits…

Support: All climbing plants need something to wrap around, cling to, or lean on to achieve their mature height, whether they're twiners (e.g. pole beans, black-eyed susan vines, wisteria to name just three) or tendril-climbers like passion vines or sweet peas – or edible peas. A climbing rose doesn't twine or have tendrils, but it does need structural support to provide stability for its long arching canes and to allow it to reach its full, flower-filled, upright potential.

Sweet Peas reaching for the sky!

Maximize space: Just say every square inch of soil in your garden is full and there's nowhere left to grow but up. In a crowded vegetable garden, a trellis or arbor maximizes vertical space, training cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers and squash upwards and freeing up valuable space to grow more earthbound vegetables like beets or lettuce. A city gardener wishing for more flower-growing space can make the most of their tiny backyard by creating a vertical masterpiece of vibrant blooms using a well-placed trellis, covered with colorful clematis vines or sweet peas!

Improved air circulation & disease prevention: Fungal issues affect many types of plants, and fungi love moist, still, stagnant conditions where poor air circulation encourages spore dispersal and fungal development. A trellis guides fungal-prone plants upwards, allowing air to move freely around their stems and foliage, minimizing the risk of fungal problems. Moving air also helps deter pests, reduces insect hiding places and stops them from settling in to lay eggs and multiply.

Keeps veggies clean, pest-free, more productive and easier to harvest: Back in the vegetable patch, trellis-trained tomatoes, squash, peas, cucumbers and beans are kept up off the ground and out of reach of slugs, snails and sowbugs and any gophers who venture above ground for a bite to eat. Growing your vegetables vertically makes it easier to monitor pests, nip potential problems in the bud and so increases productivity. It also makes harvesting easier, keeping veggies visible and close at hand.

Training tomatoes up and over a medium arbor in our veggie garden!

Aesthetic appeal: Even without plants clambering up, over or through, an arbor, trellis or topiary adds height, dimension, charm and visual interest to your garden. These structures can enclose a space for privacy, define a garden room or entryway, create a focal point, or gracefully facilitate a transition between different garden spaces. Add a vigorous evergreen vine to your trellis, and you've got coverage for an unsightly view! Or screening just as effective as any hedge!

Factors to consider when choosing a trellis, arbor or topiary..
The best trellis for your garden depends on a number of key factors. Sourcing trellises and arbors to stock here at Cottage, I was looking for rugged, sturdy, beautiful, well-priced, available in a range of sizes and built to last a lifetime. Tall order, right? Well, I found a wonderful array of arbors, trellises and topiary forms from Artisan Trellis!

Eye-appeal is top of the list for me, and you can't go wrong with any of their creations. They're attractive and blend beautifully with any home style from city modern to countryside farmhouse. They also serve as the perfect support for any climbing plant, and work beautifully with any garden's décor. And hey, as a person who loves watching birds flit and flutter around the garden, I can't let you go without telling you that the gauge on these trellises and arbors makes each and every one of them the most absolutely perfect perch for birds! Hummingbirds in particular LOVE Artisan Trellis!

Clematis 'Ville de Lyon' on one of our corner trellises

Then there's the plants you're considering growing on it. When you're choosing a structure for your climbing plant, pay attention to its mature size, growth habit and lifespan, and pick a trellis or arbor that works for it. For example, a big rambling climbing rose is long-lived, requiring a long-lasting, sturdy, strong trellis, with a wisteria needing an even stronger one. Don't bring home a small trellis for either one, as it will outgrow it before you know it – instead aim for a strong sturdy Extra Large Arbor or trellis. On the other hand, if you're hoping to grow fragrant sweet peas which are lovely almost wispy annuals, you can purchase a large obelisk, a small arbor or any trellis that is tall enough (they grow 6-8' tall!) for a spectacular springtime show. A clematis has different needs again. With some varieties reaching just 6' tall max, and others wanting to grow much taller, there's a whole array of trellis and arbor choices for you, with the shorter ones looking amazing on our Artisan spiral!

Lifespan of these wonderful trellises and arbors from Artisan? Forever basically….In my own garden I have over a dozen assorted Artisan trellises and arbors, with the first one coming home with me over 22 years ago. All of them are still going strong, doing their job, and still looking absolutely wonderful!

What can I say except that I highly recommend these gorgeous garden structures!! They're everything you need in a trellis, arbor, or topiary, and we have a multitude of styles, sizes and forms for you to choose from! Come on in!

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