The Pot Arbor

Earlier this year, I posted about the Memphis Hydrangea Tour sponsored by the Mid-South Hydrangea Society. One of the gardens on the tour is Brad Dantone's whose striking pot arbor attracted a lot of attention. Several of you commented about it and asked for directions on how to create one. Brad graciously sent me the directions and I'm just now getting around to posting them (sorry to be so slow!).

Here is Brad next to his pot arbor -

Here are his instructions on how he did it:

{{{This project is easier if two people work together. 

Rebar must be small enough to fit through the hole in the bottom of the pots.Cement the rebar 2 feet into the ground.  Start the pots through the rebar and put mortar on the bottom side of each pot.  Put the next pot on top of the previous pot.  Every pot has the mortar to hold to the next pot as they are treaded through the rebar.

Cement the Post in the ground in the center.

Get a large 2 gallon container, cut the bottom out and centered around the rebar and the first layer of pots.  Stop adding pots above the container.

Pour in the cement and after it dries, cut the plastic off the container.  Use mortar dye to color the cement to a terracotta color.  You can see where the container frame is on the left side of my leg in the picture.

After the cements dries, continue adding more pots with the mortar in between each pot.    

Bend the two rebars to meet in the middle at the post.  The rebar must be bent before the pots are layered.  If not, the pot will crack as you bend the bar.

You will need to cut a piece of rebar to go through the post. Butt the two ends of the rebar together with the piece of rebar in the middle of the post.  Fasten together with a metal gasket that gets tighter as you turn the screw. 

There will be a space of rebar at the top which the pots cannot cover.  Cover the rebar and gaskets with mortar and also dye to the terracotta color. 

}}}}

A nice winter project! Thank you Brad for sharing your instructions. So, who is going to try it?

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy