Small Garden Arch Ideas: Sizing, Siting and What to Grow

An arch works when it marks a threshold. Standing on its own in the middle of a lawn, with the same garden on both sides, it reads as a hoop — which is the mistake most of them make.

Siting — the part that decides whether it works

Good positions, in rough order:

1. A gap in a hedge or fence between two areas
2. The entrance to a vegetable plot or a cutting garden
3. The end of a path, framing what is beyond
4. Between lawn and patio, where the surface changes
5. Over a gate
6. Against a wall as a half-arch, which suits the narrowest gardens

Poor positions: the middle of a lawn, anywhere with the same thing on both sides, and anywhere it blocks the only route with a mower or a wheelbarrow.

Sizing

Measure after the climber, not before. A rose or honeysuckle occupies six inches each side within two seasons, and an arch that was just wide enough becomes a gauntlet.

Metal or timber

• Metal — slim, long-lived, strong enough for a heavy climber, and takes up far less visual room. The right default for a small garden. Powder-coated steel or wrought iron
• Timber — softer, suits cottage planting, bulkier in a small space, and the legs rot at ground level in five to ten years unless they are kept out of soil
• Willow or hazel — cheap, charming, two to four years of life. Good for a vegetable plot
• Tension wire and posts — the cheapest arch of all: two stout posts and a curved length of heavy wire or rebar

Anchoring

A planted arch is a sail, and arches blow over in the first big autumn gale far more often than people expect.

• Spike feet alone are not enough once a climber is established
• Concrete the legs, or use metal ground sockets bolted to a buried paving slab
• Timber legs into post anchors, so the wood never touches soil
• Brace the top between the two sides if the design allows, to stop it racking
• Check it every autumn before the gales, and tie the climber in rather than letting it hang

Climbers that suit a small arch

Good

• Clematis — light, enormous range, most can be cut back hard. The best choice for the smallest arches
• Climbing rose (not a rambler) — repeat-flowering varieties give a long season and scent
• Honeysuckle — evening scent, fast, tolerant
• Annual sweet peas — a full season of flower while a permanent climber establishes
• Runner or climbing French beans — crop at picking height
• Cucumbers and small squash, with slings for the heavy fruit

Avoid on a small arch

• Wisteria — beautiful, immensely heavy, will eventually crush a light arch
• Rambling roses — far bigger than climbers, despite similar labels
• Russian vine — grows faster than you can cut it
• Ivy — heavy, and it holds damp against timber

Two arches, or an arbour

• Two arches in line, a few feet apart, read as a tunnel and make a short path feel longer — a useful trick in a small garden
• An arch with a bench under it becomes an arbour and gives the garden a destination
• A series of three or more over a path is the classic pergola walk, and needs a longer garden than most of the people asking this question have