The Weekly Gardener 1

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Garden Structures

Arbors, Arches, Pergolas and Trellises

White Lily

Designed to be placed on a path, arbors are small, self-standing structures often used to mark an entrance or serve as a gate.

They typically have four posts for support, benches for sitting and enjoying the shade, and are covered in fragrant perennial climbers like roses, honeysuckle, jasmine or clematis.

Arches are used to build green tunnels through the landscape, and to train cordon fruit trees such as apples, pears, peaches, and plums.

Larger self-standing structures, known as pergolas, create natural canopies over outdoor sitting areas.

When covered in vegetation, they provide shade, sometimes even protection from the elements, and support for heavy, long-lived climbers like grapevines or wisteria.

Trellises are lightweight vertical lattices, which support delicate climbers such as chocolate vine, morning glory, or trumpet vine.

Trellises are versatile; they can function as privacy screens independently or at the end of pergolas. They can also be attached to fences or walls to provide visual appeal and vertical growing space for flowers and vegetables.

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Cold Frames and Greenhouses

White Snapdragons

When one gets serious about growing one's own food, a cold-frame becomes a necessity, especially in colder climates where the season is not long enough to allow slow seed to harvest produce to mature.

A cold frame is simply a raised bed with a transparent lid which can be removed when the weather warms up.

Cold frames can significantly lengthen useful gardening time by allowing the sowing of vegetables a month or more ahead of schedule, or even an early harvest before the season begun.

Greenhouses are permanent structures, meant to extend the growing season and protect tender perennials during winter.

To be called a greenhouse a structure must have its own running water, floor drain, furniture, operable window panes for ventilation, and be large enough to walk in.

More features can be added to it later, such as shading, self-watering systems, artificial lighting, humidity controls, and tool storage.

Finally, if a greenhouse has its own heating system, it becomes a hothouse.