Greening of a Pergola
Pergolas are space-building elements that are greened and provide shade. Most of the time pergolas are heavy, framed constructions made of wood or metal. Often with wooden crossbars or tensioned wire ropes. Stainless steel wire rope is an excellent option for greening up your self made pergola as the examples on this page will show. This includes roofs, sides areas and columns. Please also note the examples for arcades and grapevines. The next section will be about canopies without frames.
Greening the Roof Area of a Pergola
Most often, the roof areas of pergolas are greened like by canopies. However, only climbing plants that can easily grow 3 m and higher are suited. Grapevines are often an option. See "Pergola-Vines". But also Wisteria, Dutchman's Pipe, Clematis montana, Kiwi, Ivy, Evergreen Honeysuckle, Akebia, Roses, Trumpet Vines and wild grapes vines. Ideal are systems that are designed with lengthwise and crosswise axes. In other words, systems that have grid forms with 30 - 50 cm meshes. Smaller meshes like with nets or prefab lattices, need more maintenance because more dead wood and foliage has to be removed. Most pergolas have strong, parallel beams or rafters. Wire rope (d= 3 mm) is threaded through these elements and fastened with clamping ring KL00034. As a solution, FassadenGrün presents the system 0060 in different varieties. If you don't want to drill through the wooden rafters, the alternative would be to use eyelet screws, for example WH 07080, on the outer or inner side of the rafters and beams, along with staples and staple nails. This alternative is analogous to our basic kits.
Greening of the side areas
For privacy reasons, a pergolas sides are often greened, similar to carports. For this, English Ivy or grapevines are planted. The latter usually as vertical cordons, fans, horizontal cordons, or trained in the vineyard style. Accordingly, a variety of different wire rope arrangements (d= 3 mm) are necessary. System 0010, or individually designed systems similar to system 0010 are suited for vertical strands. For systems like 1060, or even 1040, the spaces between most supports are to wide, so that the wire rope would sag. We recommend an additional vertical strand in the middle between the two posts. This wire is fastened in one of the upper beams or purlins with a eylet screw (WH 07080). The horizontal and vertical wires are attached to one another via cross clamps (SK 03012) at the intersecting points. Naturally, many combinations of horizontal and vertical wire ropes are possible. Examples in the photo galleries.
The greening of Pergola posts
Pergola supports are greened similarly to pillars and columns. For example with annual climbing plants, Clematis-Hybrids, or even roses. The necessary wire rope (d = 3 mm) is installed vertically like with systems 1020 and 1030. Depending on the desired effect (one sided or all-round greening), you need 1 - 4 strands a post. You can use more than one strand a side for rectangular supports with larger surfaces such as with system 4020.
Most of the time, light and basic kits from FassadenGrün suffice. However, medium and heavy kits are often used to provide more wall distance. Massive kits are used for representative and design reasons. The choice of construction style complies with the surface (with pergolas, manly solid wood).
