I love it! We had bittersweet on our back fence when I was a kid. It was one of those ugly chainlink things and that vine sure made it look pretty! I bet it will look wonderful on your arbor. I like your mushroom idea. Another thought, if you want to get into mosaics ... in one of my many mosaic books - Creative Garden Mosaics: Dazzling Projects & Innovative Techniques - the author Jill MacKay mosaiced a snake on a rock border using stained glass. It looked like the snake was wiggling along on the garden's rock border. I thought it was so pretty that I wanted to try it sometime but have nowhere to put that many rocks! Something like that would even look pretty on one of your limestone pieces ... like a curled up snake or mosaiced bug.

What a wonderful idea for an arbor! That is going to look beautiful with the plants growing up it, can't wait to see it. I just found this photo and idea tonight, on flickr, for making mushrooms!

"The bases are bud vases, covered in tinted concrete, and I use various items including bowls as molds for the caps"
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hugs, Karen

Jeanne I like your arbor. When your vines get going, it will add to your special little area. Nice job.

What a neat ideal...I planted 3 bittersweets last yr along one of our fence lines...Can't wait till they do something...Around here bittersweet is pretty much a thing of the past. I like the ideal of your arbor holding on to a piece of it...

What a great idea for the arbor! And bittersweet should be beautiful on there! Can't wait to see a "later" picture this fall!

Since I have no idea what a bittersweet is I am going to google and look it up. But if everyone else knows and thinks it's a good idea, you dont have to go out and dig them up. Just leave them there. We approve!!!! LOLOLOLOL

Now that arbor is the greatest thing ever. You and sweetums did good. I would attach another hog panel on the back and make myself a mosaic throne inside there. Yep. THen you could sit and admire the bittersweet (whatever that is). Get yourself a frog exterminator first.

Hugs not bugs,
Susie

Jeanne,

I absolutely LOVE your hog panel arbor!!! I don't know who it was that posted anotehr hog panel arbor recently but that is in the back of my mind to do as well for an arbor. Hubby and I were at Lowes today and I showed him the hog panel and told him about the idea. We may take one of two and make an arbor for our doggies yard (to give her some more summer shade). We'll see what we end up doing.....and thank you for anotehr inspirational idea put into action!

Love, Jules

Thanks, GJers, for your comments! We've had 4 hog panels sitting around for years...one I use as a gate to compost pile...and my DH cut 3 more in half (to 8' sections) & I'm using them in my garden this yr. to try to grow vining plants on them...gourds, pumpkins, cukes, etc. They're definitely "bent up"...but this arbor turned out pretty good, I thought...lots of tugging & pulling to shape it up!

luna...looked up Jill MacKay's book on library sites in this area...not listed...so will try to inter-library loan it...sounds interesting.

purplemoon...great mushroom idea...like the pic!

susieroses...Bittersweet is awesome in the Fall...it dries into red/orangish seeds in pods...I hope it grows for me...this is my first try at it! I have a pc. in my china closet with Jewel Tea Autumn Leaf dishes...look those up sometime...nice and fallish!

desertrat...I don't know who posted originally...but I liked the idea...so have fun with yours...sounds like a great project for your doggie yard! Link below that I looked at for instructions...but used fence posts instead.

Thanks all for sharing comments! Jeanne S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hog Panel Arbor site

I looked at this last night and thought I had posted a comment... hmmmm... must be getting older age.

Maybe I'm weird (maybe??) but shouldn't you have something to sit on after you enter the arbor? If you put all that stuff at the back there, where are all the gawkers of beautiful redish/orangey pods going to sit and gawk? Maybe you can slap some cement in between the stones so they become seats.

Aside from that I really like your arbor. You'll have to remember to show us updated pics once the bushes grow and start producing the pods. Looks so sunny and the grass is lush and green. Seems like you were just showing us snow pics.

Hey at 5;30 in the morning, I was wondering what a "bittersweet hog" is!
Looks great! I really like how you used the fence posts. Does that mean you didn't have to cut the panel down on the ends to stick into the soil? When i looked at them before i thought probably not for me cuz dh and I are both on the tall side.
Susie I think you would recognize bittersweet if you saw it in fruit. You've probably seen it at flower shops if no where else. I believe oriental bittersweet is no longer sold in some states, particularly heavily forested ones, because it gets invasive and kills trees and for some reason the native one has gotten rare. Both are beautiful. I know a couple of places where it grows "wild" here still and people go and harvest it heavily so what we have left probably doesn't get a chance to invade. But I'm not sure which one it is.
kathy

Jeanne, If you have a compost patch I know Your bittersweet will do great. I am a firm believer in compost!!!!!

I Googled Bittersweet and it is beautiful!!! Can you cut pieces and dry it? Or can you cut long vines of it and make a fall door swag? Since it is so invasive sounds like it will be prolific. You will probably have a gorgeous arbor and I will be waiting for Fall to see the pics!!!

The bittersweet we had on the chain link fence was the American nightshade variety. In the summer, it has pretty little purple flowers and at the end of summer and into fall, it develops pretty little red berries. Here is a picture of the flowers and the berries before they turn red.

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Yep, that's nightshade. The berries can be poisonous so maybe not a good choice if there are little kids around. Although the one we had was around when I was a little kid and I was taught not to eat the berries. Never tried them.

The Oriental variety is the one you see in floral arrangements where the red berries grow all along the vine. Those are the invasive type here in the U.S.

I have a hog panel in between two wisteria's. It's a very sturdy and economic way for climbers to go crazy. I have a bird bath under it and the birds love it.

I will adapt this idea to climbing roses, which are close to the entrance and on both sides. It is quite inexpensive to put this kind of support and beside roses I may plant some clematis to fill in the spaces. Thanks.

Looks great!! It will be "ablaze" with color when the fall hits & it fills in. Wonderful when touched with snow, can just see the pics. Think I already have as often see pics or birds sitting on snowy branches full of red berries. Think that is no doubt bittersweet! Jan