This is the granite garden bench I added last summer. Photo taken BEFORE we got 2 ft. more snow and BEFORE today's 8-10 inches. The rose of Sharon growing behind it is nearly as tall as I am.

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In the background is the 40 ft. long row of old white hydrangea.

Thyme- All my arbor/arches are from Fred Meyer and I got them all on sale or clearance :)

They've held up really well, so far, and I haven't seen any rust on the arches. This is the first winter for the arbor, so we'll see how that looks in the spring.

We get so much snow and rain in the late fall, winter and early spring that I don't even attempt to use anything but metal. If I had the money for a redwood or cedar pergola, that would be great, but it's not in the budget right now! LOL

I don't know if you have a Fred Meyer in your area, but one of my mom's arches is from Lowe's. It was a little more expensive and it doesn't go as far into the ground, but no rust so far. She gets a lot of wind, so we tied it to her fence...but the Fred Meyer arches have more 'ends' to stick in the ground...and hold up well in the wind and snow.

No, I don't work for FM, but I do like their arches...and they often have 30% to 50% sales on their garden accessories :)

I have a few iron things in the front garden. The oldest is the iron arbour, installed in 2003. It doesn't have any significant rust that I've noticed. All my iron things were custom made and painted with spray paint meant for metal things.

Here are some pictures from this morning of the metal things in the front bed (As you can see, we've not had much snow this winter - maybe only 6-8" on the ground...)

The new tuteur:
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The concrete bench and flanking short tuteurs:
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Looking through the arbour - you can see where they all are in relation to each other:
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The sundial is brass, not iron, but I really like it - and it is placed so it tells the time accurately too!
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Thanks everyone.

Classic that I live in the Granite State and hadn't even thought of granite. DUH!

LL, I don't have a Fred Meyer around here but I'll check into Lowe's maybe this spring to see what they might have.

Woody, I still love that new large tuteur you installed this year. So, it sounds like if I get anything metal I should inquire at a local paint store what the best "outdoor" metal paint might be. Now if only I could find a local welder.......

thyme - check the yellow pages :-) That's where I found Mario. It's a lot of fun to work with a good craftsman to build something. Mario liked the iron arbour best - he said it reminded him of things in Rome. After he said that, I went though one of my garden history books and there was a picture of an ancient garden structure (in stone, not metal) somewhere in Italy that looked very much like my arbour - the picture must have lodged in my subconcious somewhere and popped out when I was planning the arbour.

I have several concrete benches that I've left out for a number of years. I also have a tuteur that I made out of copper, some gazing balls and other glass type ornaments that weather well.