I liked the first garden arch so much that I got a second one.

Well – the plan was to have two all along – I think. Despite being exactly the same as the first one, it was much quicker to assemble because we thought to use cycle oil, which made the metal pieces slot together much easier. When it came to set the arch into the ground, that was also much easier as I wasn’t setting one end of the arch into builder’s rubble that needed to be dug out (as I had to for the first one).

Of course it also meant that more lawn had to be taken up and the borders extended to match the first arch. Those extended borders also needed edging and so on. It also meant another two roses were needed to train up each side of this new arch. They both came as bare root plants with only the smallest hint of life.

It will take a few years for the roses to grow up the arches and for my “design” to be realised. I just hope that I haven’t spent a lot of money for something that isn’t going to look very good in the end, but I am patient and quietly confident that it will look amazing.