Arches

Wooden arches are better for a permanent feature that will carry a mature climber; metal arches suit a light, decorative role on a budget. A pressure-treated timber arch has the weight and stiffness to hold a climbing rose or honeysuckle for years without bending, gives the plant lattice sides to cling to, and can be painted or stained to suit the garden. Thin tubular metal arches are cheap and quick to put up, but they flex in wind once a plant is on them, rust where the coating chips, and rarely last beyond a few seasons.

Choose the Rose Arch for a path or walkway and the Omega Arch for a feature over a bench or patio entrance. The Rose Arch is the traditional English design: a rounded top with square trellis sides, 1m wide and 700mm deep, with long heavy duty posts for setting into the ground. The Omega Arch is wider and squarer at 1.25m by 600mm, with a curved pergola-style roof and diamond lattice sides, and its width means a two-seater bench fits beneath it. Both are pressure-treated FSC timber; the Omega also comes factory coated, so it needs no further treatment unless you want to paint it. 

Set the posts in holes around 450mm to 600mm deep and fix them with Postcrete, checking the arch is level and square before the mix sets. The Rose Arch is 2.6m tall to allow for this, so you still have about 2m of headroom once the legs are buried. Dig the holes slightly oversized, stand the arch in place, brace it temporarily with a couple of battens, then add Postcrete and water to each hole. On paving or concrete, where you cannot dig, fix the posts with bolt-down post shoes from our fixings and finishings range instead; this also suits the shorter Omega Arch, which keeps its full height that way. 

Climbing roses, clematis, honeysuckle and jasmine are the best fit for a wooden arch, because they can be tied into the trellis sides and kept to the size of the structure. Pair a repeat-flowering climbing rose with a clematis for colour from early summer to autumn, or use an evergreen clematis or star jasmine if you want cover through winter. Wisteria will grow on a timber arch but becomes very heavy and needs pruning twice a year to stay in check, so it suits the sturdier Omega Arch better than a 1m wide walkway. 

Not usually. A home-made arch needs two 2.4m treated posts, top rails, trellis for the sides, fixings and Postcrete, which comes to roughly the same as our Rose Arch at around £99 before you count your time or the tools to cut a curved top. Making your own only pays off when you need a non-standard size, a much wider walkway, or a very simple flat-topped frame with no trellis. For a finished, pressure-treated arch with a shaped roof and matching lattice, buying it ready to assemble is the better value, and the timber is already treated and FSC certified. 

Our wooden garden arches cost between roughly £99 and £179 including VAT. The Rose Arch, a traditional 1m wide walkway arch with trellis sides, is the lower figure, and the wider, factory-coated Omega Arch with its pergola-style roof is the higher one. Price is driven by size, the type of lattice and whether the timber is pre-coated as well as pressure treated. 

Both arches are a straightforward two-person job that takes an hour or two with a drill driver and a spirit level. They arrive flat-packed with the pieces pre-cut, and include assembly fixings and a step-by-step manual. Assemble the two sides flat on the ground first, fit the top between them, then stand the arch up and fix it into the ground or onto post shoes before you let go of it, because an unfixed arch is top-heavy.