Chris Bacon wrote in
:


The thort strikes me that you could either use four posts, and
add some trellis as decribed in another thread, for a "doorway"
effect, or have some angled bracers near the bottom Depends on
the hedge, I should thing.



The thought of having to get 4 posts into the ground rather than 2 fills
me with dread! I will think about the bracers though.

The hedge is a bit of a mix - berberis, hazel, japonica, some smaller
shrubs, bit of lavender, bit of lonicera, so I can easily shove bracing
bits in there and not be noticeable. It is by no means a formal area
and also slopes steeply in several directions at once: I could just do
with a gate between me and the lane to stop my greyhound running out,
and, even more important, stop next door's non-rabbit-friendly pointer
running in (I have 3 pet rabbits in my garden).

I don't think it would be suitable for growing most climbers as
suggested in another post because of the problem of making a
sufficiently large hole to get the roots in! The hedge, so far as I
can see, is mostly growing on a pile of its own leaf debris and has
managed to worm roots into the cracks, but I wouldn't think any annual
plant would stand a chance.

I tried planting some young hedging shrubs round there a couple of years
ago but it's just too well drained and the existing hedge ate them for
breakfast.

I do have a bean arch elsewhere in the garden already, and will soon
have a squash arch as well, now the idea has been suggested! I have
loads of hazel for uprights, and in other parts of my garden I can just
push it into the ground and weave to shape.

Some of my garden does have soil, you see! Just not the bit by the lane.

Hm, here's a thought. I could hack the hedge right back and build a
pair of stone uprights, using the stones from my Mighty Stone Heap
(assembled through several years of 'another stone! Arrch! Chuck the
bugger on the heap!).

It's not great looking stuff and the stones are mostly medium-smallish,
but if I squidged it together with sufficient mortar and made big fat
posts, I'd have thought it would hold up through sheer weight, and would
look very much like the many strange ex-mining constructions you come
across in the woods round here - also using small crap cheap local
stones.

Victoria
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gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
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