Things You'll Need:
- Shovel
- Stakes
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Step 1
Select slender trees, such as hawthorn, mountain ash and most crabapple varieties, to form the open walls or posts of your gazebo. If you use bushier trees, you'll have to constantly prune them back to leave space between the posts of your gazebo.
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Step 2
Pace out and mark, with stakes, where you'd like the trees to be for the walls of your gazebo. You can make it as large or small as you like, but the trees must be at least five feet or more apart from each other.
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Step 3
Dig a hole at each location you marked, at least twice as big as the root ball of the tree you're going to plant there.
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Step 4
Place the tree in the ground, making sure that it gets planted at the same level as it was in the nursery --- look for where the bark changes color to indicate the proper level for planting.
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Step 5
Backfill soil into the hole around the root ball and support each tree with one small stake or, if you live in an especially windy location, use multiple stakes.
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Step 6
Wait for the trees to grow. It will take at least three to five years for them to start to naturally lace together, depending on the type of tree you plant. If you'd like to bring them in to form a natural gazebo roof, let them grow until they're as high as you want the gazebo walls to be. Then start to train the tops inward by tying them loosely together while they're still flexible, and pruning away branches that head in undesired directions.
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Step 7
Clear leaves and other brush away from the ground inside your gazebo made from trees. Fill in gaps and uneven places in the ground with either tamped dirt or gravel.
