If you are planning to grow climbing roses, perhaps some honeysuckle or maybe a clematis or two, it pays to have something to grow them up.
Usually a sunny wall that is sheltered from the wind is ideal but what if you want a focal point further away from your house that is deeper into the garden?
A pergola is ideal for many reasons. Firstly you a three hundred and sixty degree view to give several aspects and effects and, depending on the time of day and the stage of flowering or leaf development that your particular climbers have achieved, shadow and three dimensional foliage architecture comes into play.
There is also an inside and an outside that can be appreciated for different reasons. The longer the tunnel - see the Pergola example in the picture that Rob Harrison has created in his garden in Les Eyzies de Tayac, south west France - the more the you feel that you are 'inside' your creation and of course, when it is hot outside, it is a haven from the intensity of the sun, lets you get up close and personal to butterflies and other insects and better appreciate the scent from your flowers.
Rob has used rustic round and half round poles which will give the structure a soft look and feel. These will go silver in the sun and also blend passively as his roses start to dominate. In the winter, the structure will take over as the dominant partner with its shape and form.
If you are planning a similar structure like this out of softwood then it is worthwhile investing in pressure treated timber for greater longevity.
If you allow for a metre of post in the soil (provided that you can excavate properly) then I would resist concrete.
Backfilling the hole with some larger stones or old tile mixed with the soil that has been excavated will allow water to drain past the wood and freely into the soil below.
Any post that is completely encased into a concrete boot will rot extremely fast (even treated timber) as the water has nowhere to go.
If you do concrete in your posts, stand the base of the post on compressed gravel, ballast or broken tile before backfilling with the concrete. This will let water drain and increase the life of the post.
Do not worry about stability if you do not use concrete. With a metre in the ground and the effective cross and diagonal sections, rigidity will increase as the pergola grows in size.
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