Mother's Rustic Pergola
(Page 4 of 13)
February/March 1998
By the Mother Earth News staff
Nature's Design
RELATED CONTENT
If you like the look of rustic and rugged furniture, then this show-and-tell is for you, including ...
Build one or more of these easy-to-build, attractive outdoor benches, from mail-order plans: a log ...
One of the best ways to make your yard and garden more enjoyable is to provide several spots where ...
MOTHER'S SUPER-HEAVY BENCH (OR VISE, OR BIRDBATH, OR TABLE) STAND: BUILD IT IN ONE HOUR FROM "JUNK"...
Making an indoor-outdoor garden center from wood and peg board, including diagrams, instructions, m...
From the many blue, white, and black feathers found around the spot this summer, I'm quite sure that it was one of our squawky, grape-and-blueberry-loving blue jays that perched on a branch of the fir tree a few years back to deposit the undigested seed that grew into the grape vine that determined the site of our pergola: snugly placed at the NE, uphill corner of the new garden, bordered in front by neat vegetable rows, on the south side by a large fir tree, and in back and on the left by dense woods. Its north-south orientation was virtually demanded by the site. The bench seat and open front face the setting sun and a gradually broadening downslope that falls from the garden, across a bit of lawn and the road, and over a half mile of fields and flood-meadow to the river, and beyond to the western mountains. Its proportions were determined by the setting. Its bark-brown silhouette, fringed with light grape-leaf green and old-rose pink, is comfortably framed by the varied shades of garden plantings in front, the tall fir tree to its south, darker forest greens at the other side and in back. All this is capped in clear weather by a wooded peak against a cool blue sky flecked with white clouds. Its as though the little shelter had been there always.
Foundations
Not even red cedar can hold out against ground-borne decay organisms forever, and original 19th Century rustic structures that have resisted rotting—out at ground level were built to stay dry atop firm stone foundations. Buildings went on mortared rock cellars or footings dug below frost level. Benches, gazebos, and pergolas built at the lake side or in the woods were set up on low piers of field stones. Today, rustic dwellings and large garden structures intended to last for generations go on poured concrete walls or deep concrete piers formed inside cylindrical Sonotubes.
Small and easily replaced rustic structures such as our little pergola are more easily built "fence style" by burying the main support posts in the soil, while protecting them from water and decay as much as possible. One option is to use commercial lumber pressure-treated with a copper/arsenic compound. I do use such "PT" for underpinnings for decks and dwelling additions built to last 100 years, but wouldn't want to eat grapes grown on it or have arsenic of any kind leaching into the vegetable garden. Besides, PT would somehow violate the spirit of the rustic tradition; I wouldn't want a blue jay to land barefoot on a PT post.
I did elect to bury the four support posts, but protected the decay-prone ash with a combination of old-time and modern measures.
First, I put the post bottoms into a fire I lit in the garden after the first snow to dispose of old tomato and potato vines and mulches, killing pests and pathogens along with the dry vines. The posts were still fairly green. I shaved the loose bark off the lower 21-feet of each, and turned them in the fire till the exposed surfaces were charred. As farmers learned millennia ago when they needed to fence—in newly domesticated wild cattle, the natural creosote on fence logs they'd felled and trimmed to length by burning through at the base (that's slow, but easier than banging away with a stone or copper ax) provides an effective insect and mold deterrent that can retain its effectiveness for decades.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 | 4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
Next >>
