The pergola is understated by nature, an empty frame to accent or support. It doesn’t look like much on its own, but a garden without a pergola is like a room without a rug: something is missing but you can’t quite put your finger on what.
Create an evening destination with outdoor string lights woven through the framework of a pergola.
Hang String Lights
Photograph by Drew Kelly courtesy of Third Nature Studio.
A square outdoor area or extensive acreage over a flat plane calls for some vertical interest, an architectural element to break up the landscape and inspire new planting patterns around it.
Photograph courtesy of Grounded Gardens.
Create Architectural Interest in a Flat Landscape
Take a backyard (Above) designed by Grounded Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, where a thin iron pergola frames an outdoor dining area of pale slate.
Add Shade Coverage During Summer Months
Photograph by Niya Bascom Photography.
A modern steel and wood pergola in a garden by Ishka Designs on South Oxford Street in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. But without a pergola, one can only expect to do so in the early morning or the evening.
Train Fragrant Vines to Grow Overhead
Photograph courtesy of Gravetye Manor.
For more, see The Ultimate UK Getaway: 1 Hour from London, But a World Away at Gravetye Manor.
Grow Productive Fruit or Vegetables
Their little farm was a “diamond in the rough” when blogger April of Wahsega Valley Farm and her husband, Mike, moved to a cabin in the Georgia countryside in 2006.
Photograph courtesy of Wahsega Valley Farm.
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova courtesy of Pulltab Design.
Shade a Roof Garden
On a rooftop, a pergola provides shade without blocking the view.
To create an elegantly simple roof garden in Manhattan s East Village Melissa Baker and Jon Handley of Pulltab Design members of the Remodelista Architect Designer...
...Directory maximized the impact of panoramic views while maintaining a sense of privacy which they achieved with strategically placed walls canvas screens and plantings says Christine
A woven hammock between the columns of a bamboo-covered pergola at San Giorgio Mykonos, a design element that promotes naps and afternoon reading.
String Up a Hammock
Blur the Boundary Between Indoors and Out
A cantilevered pergola functions as an extension of the house on a rooftop in Chelsea, New York City, designed by Brook Landscape.
Watch the sun move across the sky throughout the day and enjoy the wells of light and shadow created by the slats of the pergola.
Photograph by Melissa Bombardiere.
Create Filtered Lightscapes in the Garden