With the sunny weather finally at our doorstep, the next few months make for the perfect time to get outdoors and enjoy your garden space. Of course, to enjoy it fully, you’ll want to first create a garden landscape that meets your exterior design visions, creating a truly tailored space that brings you peace and joy to be in.

One feature to consider including in your garden to achieve just that is a garden arch. An arch is a truly versatile feature to incorporate into your garden space; not only can arches offer various purposes, but they’re also attractive to look at, adding dimension and texture to your outdoor space.

Keep reading to learn more about why you should consider investing in a timber garden arch along with inspiration for ways in which it could feature in your garden.

What is a Garden Arch?

As its name suggests, a garden arch is a type of outdoor structure that is constructed in the shape of (you guessed it) an arch, typically using wood or metal. These arches can be designed in various ways, with flat, round or pointed tops, as well as different designs for the panels that make up their sides.

Arches can make for both a visually appealing and/or functional addition to your garden’s landscape design, as well as providing a small degree of shade and privacy. Visually, they’re very similar to arbours (minus the seating), whilst their characteristics mean they offer similar benefits to pergolas or trellising.

Why Choose a Timber Garden Arch?

When choosing an arch for your garden, you’ll likely find yourself deciding between a timber one or a metal one – but which should you choose and why might timber be better?

Aesthetics

Whilst both metal and timber arches are attractive in their own right, there are multiple factors to take into consideration as to which may look best in your garden, specifically.

Metal arches tend to offer more of a contemporary style, but many may find this to be too striking in their garden environment, appearing too contrasting with the surrounding flora. Metal also tends to appear much darker than wood, which is also worth considering.

In comparison, timber offers a much more rustic appearance. Being an organic material, it naturally blends in better with the outdoor environment.

Durability

Both materials are often able to withstand various weather conditions, often being constructed with weathering in mind. For example, metal arches tend to be made using galvanised steel or aluminium, both of which are resistant to corrosion and rust.

As for wooden arches, their ability to withstand weathering partly depends on the type of wood they’re made from. Hardwoods, for example, are much more resistant to biological factors than softwoods. Regardless of the type of wood used, however, timber treatments are commonly used to further protect wooden arches from UV and water damage.

Assembly

A lot of arches are supplied in a flat-pack format for home assembly. As such, it’s important to consider how easy each is to install when determining the material of the arch you’re looking to install in your garden.

Whilst they are easy enough to assemble through the use of strong connectors that will hold the frame securely in place, solid metal arches can be heavy, making them potentially tricky to put together – especially without assistance.

As for wooden arches, these can be a bit more manageable. Most will come with pre-drilled pieces, allowing the different parts to be fixed together as easily as possible.

Ways to Feature an Arch in Your Garden

House Climbing Plants

One of the most popular ways people incorporate arches into their gardens is by using them to showcase their climbing plants. Rather than having a bare arch, framing this with a climber can really help to make it an incorporated feature in your garden – this is especially impactful when the climbing plant in question is in bloom!

The subsequent result appears as though a quaint, magical archway has manifested itself in your back garden.

To encourage climbers to establish on your arch, it’s best to choose one fitted with a lattice design, such as our Omega Top Arch, as this offers anchor points for your chosen plant to grab onto as it grows.

Some examples of climber plants you could use include:

• Climbing roses
• Clematis
• Wisteria
• Passion flower

Create a Walkway

The shape and size of garden arches means they’re great for catching your eye and drawing attention to where it’s most wanted in your garden. This makes them ideal for highlighting paths and walkways throughout your garden.

If you have a particularly bountiful garden when it comes to flowers and foliage, this can be especially effective, as it offers a defined and easy-to-follow route to walk along throughout your outdoor area without risk of damaging the grass or dutifully maintained plants.

Furthermore, using multiple arches in this way offers you artistic choice over how you wish your garden to be experienced. If you believe there’s a specific path to be walked that allows your garden to be appreciated and viewed as intended, then arches will clearly define this path.

Mark an Entrance

With their grandiose shape and impactful presence, arches make great framing features. As such, they can be highly effective for marking entrance ways.

Whether it be marking the entrance to your home through the front or back garden, their statement appeal will draw the gaze of any passers-by or visitors, focusing their attention to where you want it most when looking at your garden from the outside in.

You could elevate the impact it has further by planting climbing roses, jasmine or honeysuckle to go over your arch, which will greet you and any visitors with a delicate scent each time you pass underneath it.

Define Areas Within the Garden

If you’re lucky enough to be blessed with a large garden, then arches offer a great way to segment and define different areas you may have in your garden landscape.

For example, you may have a hedge that separates your general garden space to an allotment area, a patio with a path leading off it through your lawn or maybe even a woodland area beyond the end of your garden.

Rather than having these areas blend into one another with no rhyme or reason, garden arches can act as a seamless transition from one space to the next.

Frame a View

As we’ve already mentioned, arches are great for catching the eye. With this in mind, they can focus attention on particularly spectacular views.

It could be that you have a statue or water fountain that you wish to make a focal point of your garden, or perhaps you’re treated to a stunning view of rolling hills, distant woodland or a river just beyond your garden hedge.

Regardless of the view you wish to frame, using an arch to do so is a sure way to impress your visitors – not to mention it’s aesthetically pleasing for you, also!

Alternative Uses

Whilst all the examples we’ve listed thus far are more common uses of garden arches, there are still various alternative uses that you may wish to use yours for.

One example of such is to use your garden arch as a makeshift wedding arch! If you, a friend or family member is planning on having a small, intimate wedding, then a well-designed garden can be the perfect place for the ceremony – as well as offering more sentimental value, it also saves the to-be-weds money!

Arches are a common feature at weddings to frame the happy couple as they exchange vows. A timber arch, such as our Rose Arch, covered in a climbing plant looks especially spectacular in photos and can even be decorated further with fairy lights or cloth.

Of course, this is a more niche example of how a timber garden arch can be used, but it just goes to show how versatile they are!

Quality Timber Garden Arches and More…

So, are you feeling inspired by the potential of garden arches? To find the perfect timber arch to feature in your own garden landscape, then look to us here at Hales Sawmills.

From garden arches and arbours to log stores and more, we supply a range of garden products that have been crafted using quality timber from our very own sawmill in Shropshire. Having been in the business for over 40 years, you can rest assured that our experience and passion are reflected in the quality of our work.

To learn more about the products we sell or discuss arranging a custom order, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today.