How to select and train plants for creating sheltered eating and seating places.
An arbour or ‘shady bower’ provides a cool seating or outdoor-dining area, formed typically out of a tent-shaped support structure with trees or climbers trained up and over it.
Climbers to tarry under
Climbers require a permanent support, constructed from stout timber or metal such as iron or tubular steel. Woody climbers such as roses, ornamental vines and wisteria need only a basic frame of arching uprights that meet at the top and horizontal bars at 30–45cm (12-18in) spacings. Softer-stemmed climbers – Trachelospermum, clematis or honeysuckle for example – are best trained over trellis or wire lattice panels between the uprights.
Suitable trees for living shelter
Trees that lend themselves to pleaching are ideal for constructing an arbour. An initial sturdy framework such as that for woody climbers is required but can be removed once trees have formed a rigid structure after four to six years. Suitable trees include Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’, Sorbus aria ‘Lutescens’, lime, hornbeam, apple and pear.
Training plants over arches and arbours
Plant a single tree or climber at the base of each upright. Allow a minimum of 1.2m (4ft) between trees. For sheltering a table and chairs, use a diameter of around 3.3m (11ft). Select young trees with flexible stems, gradually removing sideshoots to a height of 2m (7ft).
Tie the trunk or main stem to the upright and lateral shoots to the horizontal supports. During the growing season, tie in new stems to extend the framework while they are still supple. Plait or twist together shoots from adjacent trees. Shorten shoots growing directly into or away from the arbour to one or two buds in autumn or winter. Once the arbour has been covered, shorten all new growth each winter to one bud for foliage plants, three or four buds for flowering plants such as laburnum and wisteria.