How a pergola adds drama and focus to your summer garden

A pergola can also serve year-round, as an airy overhang on the patio or free-standing, marking out a sitting position

Pergolas look especially lovely by water, llike the Biohort 4mx 3m pergola, from €4,720 ex-installation for Shade Space, Biohort.

Beloved since ancient times, pergolas offer architectural focus, blessed shade and a robust target for climbing plants to grab onto. Their post-and-beam bower character and lofty simplicity can dress up the most boring garden with an impressive patio feature or act as a richly scented walkway. The design is straightforward — a set of supportive posts mounted by beams onto which a grid of rafters is left open to the sky. The word pergola comes from the Latin word pergola, a projecting eave, and most timber garden pergolas have these very distinct overhangs. So, what could a pergola do for your garden, and what designs might suit from commercial kits, professional installs, or a complete DIY creation?

There are a number of positions where a pergola can serve year-round. It can be joined to your house as an airy overhang on the patio (as early pergolas were), or free-standing, marking out a sitting position or a walkway and/or gate in the garden laced in soft, woody, flowering climbers.