I LOVE projects, especially garden projects!! My husband and I are a great team and we've found we can build just about anything we set our minds to. I thought I'd share with you the three pergolas we've made (all by ourselves) for our gardens. This small pergola was our first. We built it in 2005 (our first year here) and it faces our pasture and woods. There is a yellow climbing rose that covers the sides and top and a Japanese Privet in the back. The Privet blooms in the Spring and the flowers are incredibly fragrant.
This was our second pergola built in 2007. It is surrounded by a very large flower bed. There are Clematis on two sides that grow up the lattice. There is a small shade garden just to the left of this pergola. In Spring I will bring out the table that matches these chairs (we put away most of the garden furniture and decorations in Winter). This is a lovely spot to relax with a glass of tea and watch the wildlife that surrounds us!
We built this pergola in April 2011. As you can see it's built on our concrete patio. It was quite a job for my husband to drill into the concrete to place the anchors/brackets for the 4x4s. He also made all of the corbel cuts on the 2x6s using his jig saw.
Here's a side view of the finished project...(that's me with two of our "helpers"!) We wanted it to be like an outdoor room, so we added an outdoor rug and hung a window on the back of it. To shade us from the morning and evening sun, we hung blinds on the East and West ends. We also installed a misting system to cool us off on those hot Summer days! Notice the small pieces of wood under the shelf? Those are the pieces that were left over from the corbel cuts. They added a little "pizazz" to the shelf!
Here's my hubby with three more of our "helpers". You can see how he finished the bottoms of the 4x4s by boxing them in to cover the brackets. This project took us about three days to complete. We have spent many hours relaxing in our outdoor room.
What are some of your favorite projects?
Words and Photos Property of Christy's Cottage Wildlife Garden.
You all did a good job on those pergolas! They look so comfy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tina....You'll need to come over in the Summer and sit under the pergola with a glass of tea and the misters on. We'll talk gardening all day!
DeleteNice pictures and nice place to sit and enjoy a little bit of Sangria. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou bet! After working all day in the garden in 95 degree weather, we can sit with the misters on and enjoy a glass!
DeleteGreat job and you two do work well together! Love the shelf and extra touch with the pizaz below! We have talked of installing a mister for those humid days. I also notice that potting bench in the background. You must talk about that some time! Love your pug helpers too....
ReplyDeleteThanks Skeeter! When you put in a mister you'll love it. It really makes a difference. Yes, I'll talk about the potting bench sometime. That was another one of our projects made out of old pallets.
DeleteI love the idea of "outdoor rooms". How really neat. And thanks for the visit and suggestion on how to fix my "picture upload" problem. It worked!.....:)
ReplyDeleteYour very welcome troutbirder! Glad it worked and I'm glad you visited my blog!
DeleteAs an architect, I congratulate you. Nice job. I smiled with your misting feature. My husband's grandfather, a plumber, installed one on his front porch. The neighbors were all "mistified".
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Yes, we love the misting feature. I bet your husband's grandfather had a lot of visitors on those hot summer days!
DeleteGreat job on the pergola! That looks like an awesome place to relax!
ReplyDeleteThanks Robin! While I'm working in the backyard garden (I spend hours working almost everyday during gardening season), this is where I go for my breaks. If it's really hot I turn on the misters and re-energize with a cool drink!
DeleteIt used to be my dream to live on an acreage, growing as much of our food as possible. My husband pointed out that we are not handy enough, and he was right. I love those pergolas, and know that we could not attempt to build something like that. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Our entire lot in CA was 75 x 45. Quite a change here and one thing's for certain....I will NEVER run out of gardening space here like I did in CA. We have a very large vegetable garden and since there's only two of us, we donate a lot of what we grow to a local homeless shelter.
DeleteGreat pergolas and love those little helpers.
ReplyDeleteKeeping the natural wood color is really nice, Christy. Doing so made the pergolas enhance the setting where they’re placed and not completely upstage the rest of the environment. They’re stained though, I suppose?
ReplyDeleteWOW! That looks very nice! We had our pergola also, but since it was already built around 3 years ago, I can see that termites were starting to ruin the wood. :( I just hope we can repair our outdoor room just in time for summer. It’ll be nice to stay on the garden where the sun shines so bright. :)
ReplyDelete+ Angelina Garcia +
That's wonderful! And this outdoor room sure adds value to your home. Not only did it make your home more beautiful, it apparently has practical functions too, like a place to read and relax or to hold gatherings with friends and neighbors. | Ryann@YanceyCompany.com|
ReplyDelete