Repurposed Garden Tool Garden Arbor

This is Part Three of a Six- Part Series of Re-purposed Garden tool, Garden things.

To recap:

Part 1:  Garden Tool, Garden Trellis

Part 2:  Garden Tool, Garden Gate

 Part 3: Garden Tool, Garden Arbor

I like hand tools, especially old ones.  Old ones, inherently, in order to survive, must have been well made (on the other hand, perhaps they were so lousy that they never got used, but that is another story).  Hand tools are pieces of art, and they all represent such value- since a lot of time, energy and toil probably went into using them.  To me, tools represent the greatest fusion of function and design.  

This arbor is the first part of a fence I am making, or have been threatening to make for a while now.  But I did just secure a fence permit, and I have six months to complete it- so the game is afoot.

One of the main functions of the soon to be garden fence and current garden arbor is to show intent with our front yard garden and provide a definition of space- a kind of formal one too, separating the green lawns on either side with our wild, and currently very dry, prairie.
Along with these design reasons, an arbor, and fence give me some more things to make.  I like building things.

I used as many pieces of tools as possible- including the handles for pegs.
 

On top of the arbor are two acorn finials I turned and these will be replicated on the fence posts.  Acorn finials are a common welcoming symbol used in gardens for centuries.

I bent the rake and hoes on the interior of the arbor to represent the universally recognized recycling symbol – in this case three tools mutually chasing each other in perpetuity.  Plus, it just looks cool, I think, and bending wood is fun.