When I bought my house, the pergola outside was covered with a material like straw or fine canes. I’m not sure what it was exactly but it gave adequate shade to the terrace. After several years, however, it began to look shabby.
My cat would sleep on it, enjoying the sun. That meant the straw developed large, cat-shaped dents, visible from below. He’s a well-fed cat so eventually the material began to break up under his weight. Ragged holes appeared. I knew the problem was something I needed to fix.
At last accepting that the cover needed to be replaced, I decided to have a go at the task myself.
First, I trekked round the local DIY shops to decide what material to choose. I wanted to avoid replacing like with like as I’d discovered that the straw became patchy and broke up after a few years. I didn’t want a material that the cat could sleep on either. He has plenty of sunny spots where he can sleep without destroying the pergola cover.
Since I’m a great fan of natural materials and vegetation I decide to try putting up a soft but durable wire mesh and train the honeysuckle, already there, to grow over it. The mesh was cheap and dark green and I measured the pergola to determine exactly how much I would need. As it happened, I didn’t need to buy any because a neighbour, in this countryside area in the south of France, told me he had rolls of it in his toolsheds. When I went to collect it, I found it in perfect condition, stashed away with all the usual stuff that male DIY experts keep in their sheds: tools, buckets, string, tiles, assorted jars of nails, coils of rope and heavy-duty gloves.
He gave me a tip about recovering the pergola. “Always figure out what you need to do a DIY task” he said “and assemble everything you need before you start. That way you avoid stopping and starting, looking for tools you don’t have to hand.”
He also gave me a hand in removing the covering I wanted to replace. Taking his advice I’d determined exactly what tools I needed and what steps I needed to take to get the job done. Using ladders, we untied all the worn covering and lifted it down. I put it, heap by heap, straight into a wheelbarrow and wheeled it off to the compost heap. Next, I measured the area of mesh that I needed to put up and and cut several sections of it to fasten on the pergola. I had figured out that it was impractical to cut and attach one large section of mesh to the pergola frame. Firstly, I wouldn’t have been able to handle such a large section. It was light but not that light. And it would have been too unwieldy. The second reason was that a single section would be more likely to be caught by the wind in a storm and lifted off the pergola frame. Fastening several smaller sections was the best way to cover the frame securely. I linked the three sections together once they were in place, using pieces of strong flexible wire. Like the mesh and the two ladders I needed, I had the wire and wire-cutters to hand before I began the job.
Once the wire mesh was in place, covering the top of the pergola, I started to untangle the rampant honeysuckle growing around the supports. The mesh was unattractive so I wanted the greenery to grow under and over it. Growing there for years, mostly undisturbed, the honeysuckle had dozens of coiled woody stems that were self-supporting. I wanted to free some of the main stems and train them over the pergola and the mesh. The two large plants sustained a little bit of damage but not much. Mounting the ladder again, I lifted several yards of honeysuckle up onto the mesh and draped it across the pergola. Using twine, I fixed the branches lightly to the mesh to keep them in place and protect them from the wind while they start attaching themselves.
I watered the honeysuckle that evening and gave it some fertilizer to help compensate for disturbing it.
The task took five hours and, as a DIY amateur, I was quite pleased with the results. The mesh is firmly attached. The honeysuckle will take time to fully cover the mesh but it has already made a good start. I have since planted a beautiful flowering clematis at one end of the terrace, to add extra greenery. It’s duly climbing the support and will eventually complement the honeysuckle with shade, greenery and beautiful pink flowers.