Well, I have achieved a tick against one of my Garden Task Bucket List. We have built ourselves a pergola and I have planted a wisteria to grace it. I have adored the look and the smell of wisteria since I first say one many years over a
n arbour that lead from a friend's house all the way through the yard to her garage. This photo I found on PinInterest. It does not belong to me. I have planted a white wisteria and two stephanotis plants over the arbours.
For some time I have been hinting about the need to build a gazebo onto which we could plant a wisteria. Finally, we agreed that an ugly area in the front yard would be ideal. This would provide us with a place where we could sit with a cool drink and admire the garden, the labour of love. The previous owners were Cocos Palm fans and we are adamant that eventually we will remove every one of them in order to help reduce mayhem on our national parks when bats drop their seeds.
We cleared out a total of six palm trees, with five more to go. The palm lined driveway in only half lined.
So with a barren piece of land towards the front of our block we decided to be creative.
Our apprentice was more than willing to tell us if the paint had dried.
We designed the pergola in three verandahs. Each one slightly shorter than the previous. The staggered height matches the staggered heights of out nearby water feature. This is a shot looking from the front of the yard to the house.
While we were building our pergola we also decided that a strip of paving needed to be built in order to provide us easy access, and to tidy up the rock edges of the garden bed on the left and the barren area along the side of the carport.
Before we put the pergola together we played with different spacing ideas. We decided to start with the large, middle and small white beams and then decided on placing three purple strips. The gaps between each beam corresponds to the width of the preceding beam. We chose purple as a feature colour as it is a perfect match to the purple colour found in the agapanthus scattered throughout our garden.
Well this is our unfurnished pergola. A little bit of Bali in the front yard. I have planted Magnolias in the pots that grace the entry and the side of the pergola.
We like it! Well that is a lie, we love it!
