Climbing plants to cover ugly walls

I get the feeling I might be spending a fair bit of time here!

I need some advice. I've attached three photos to my post so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about!

We have a small "garden" - more like a back yard, as I think the current lack of greenery means I can't really call it a garden (yet). All it has at the moment is a dead tree (which looks green in the pic, but the entire back of it is brown and falling to bits), a sad-looking raspberry plant, and a lot of weeds, stumps and roots.

It used to be quite green, but not in a good way - we had a highly invasive creeper and a lot of plants we just did not like. It was unkempt, overgrown and ugly. There wasn't a single plant we liked! So it's gone. We have someone coming to remove the remaining stubborn roots and stumps soon, and refresh the soil, before we start planting.

I've attached some photos of the current sad state of affairs! Please excuse the mess - we've got tools everywhere, and the table and chairs are off to one side while we've been digging. The shed is also in serious need of repair, as is the rendering on the back wall!

As you can see from the photos, we have a couple of ugly walls. I like the wall to the right, which is original Victorian red brick, so I'm not too bothered about covering that. But the white rendered walls are quite unsightly, I think. We are going to repair the back wall and repaint all of the rendering, then the plan is to erect 6ft trellis across the entire back wall and then across the left wall up to the point where the taller wall starts (if that makes sense). We are always going to be overlooked, that's just the nature of these Victorian terraces, but a modicum of privacy would be nice!

There is no soil to the left of the shed, and I honestly don't want to take up any pavers as I really love the paving and we spent a lot of money on it. So we'd be looking to grow something in a large trough container against the left wall. We've seen a container we love which measures 100cm x 45cm x 45cm and would fit there nicely, and hopefully a nice climbing plant would provide coverage for that left wall, up 6ft of trellis.

For the back wall, things are a bit easier as we have soil there. The dead tree is coming out so we're going to have a completely blank canvas and can afford to plant something that needs more room to grow, as it won't be confined to a container. That would hopefully provide coverage for the back wall.

We would then fill out the rest of the border with other plants. I want to get the climbing plants right first though!

This is where I need a bit of advice...

We have two indoor cats, who go outside under supervision. They don't jump or climb much. We like to sit out there with them and watch them wander around the garden - they tend to stay quite close to the ground and just explore. The trouble is, they are nibblers, so we want to make sure whatever we plant is cat-friendly, and also child-friendly. Clematis is beautiful and probably perfect for coverage, but also toxic.

So we've been looking at non-toxic climbers. I really love a couple of them... namely Star Jasmine (hence my username) and Zephirine Drouhin climbing roses. We love whites, pinks, lilacs, etc. so these two climbers would be perfect for us, but I don't want to plant them if they're not going to stand a chance of thriving in the environment we put them into.

I am a total novice, so I don't know anything, but I was hoping that we'd be able to plant one of these in the large container to cover the left wall, and one of them along the back wall to cover that wall. Would that be advisable? If so, which one would do better against the back wall, in the soil (south-facing, gets a lot of sun) and which would do better in the container, which doesn't get as much sun?

Any advice would be much appreciated. I'd also appreciate some advice about what size and structure of trellis would be best for these kinds of climbers. Does it matter?

Also, will it matter that some of the trellis is behind and to the left side of the shed? There's about 1ft space at the back and 2ft down the left side and I doubt it gets much sunlight.

 

Hello star jasmine!

You've got a lovely blank canvas there!

To be honest with the painted walls, I would be tempted to touch up the patches of flaked plaster, and then repaint them, possibly a rich mustard, or sort of apricot, to get a little warmth and colour in. If you choose a colour that link, yet contrasts with the lovely brickwork, it will help tie it all in together. Then the foliage and flowers are all an added bonus.

I'm not too clever at knowing which plants are toxic or not, but if you are not too far north, maybe a passionflower to cover one of the walls? Fast growing, but trainable, with lovely flowers, and the possibility of fruit .

I'm sure some more knowledgable people will be along soon!

 

Hi

I have two mates in work that have a very similar garden , love the idea of the trellis which will work really well but go for heavy duty not the cheap stuff as you will be surprised how much weight climbers and with the wind , reading, I think you are on to a good start getting everything sorted out first before buying and planting.

I have never heard of a cat being poisoned from clematis before ?, maybe using "catnip" which they will love and totally safe so they will have a chew at that instead as I know it aids digestion.

If choosing roses I would go with a rambler as the stems are more pliable , if growing in containers go for the biggest one you can get hold off , half barrels are ideal and look good but like I said go for the biggest your budget can manage as it makes watering so more easy and gives the plant enough soil to plant in , I agree with Sian about the passion flower as the shelter off the walls will help it through the winter.

Flagpole Cherries trees are very good at blocking out windows if strategically placed and dont take up much room and wont block the light out, I was also thinking the side with the tubs etc you could grow annuals instead , sweet peas, runner beans as a screen for the summer months , big choice with what you could use , look forward to see how it develops

Spruce

 

I agree with Spruce

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H. Russ @ rubberbark.com

 

Thanks for the ideas everyone! Much appreciated!

I think we might go for the roses along that back wall as they'll have plenty of room, then go for something else in the container down the left side.

My only worry with growing annuals like sweet peas etc. is the lack of coverage for the rest of the year, which is why we wanted something that would at least have foliage during the winter months, hmm... just not sure what exactly!

I don't really want to plant catnip in the garden as we have way too many neighbourhood cats visiting as it is!

 

I would really look into that old Victorian brick wall if I was you to make sure it is sound. Some of the bricks look a bit lacking so perhaps it might be more worthwhile to see if it's in good condition now before planting a load of stuff near and up it. I'm only pointing this out to you out of past experience.

You do seem very overlooked and I don't think climbers on their own would really stop this. My suggestion would be to redesign the whole garden. So you could have a pergola or some kind of covered seating area so you're not on show all the time. Then you could plant climbers up it etc. It depends on the garden's aspect and how much work you are willing to put in really. But I just see that garden as quite tired and the people who decided where to put those beds were a bit too conservative with them perhaps.

As you have brick paving you could take some or all of it up and then create new beds or a whole new layout if you wanted to.

I have a similar problem but I've found if you grow it in a pot instead of the ground the cats will tend to leave it alone. It has lovely flowers on it that the bees adore.

 

Thanks everyone for your opinions!

We will always be overlooked - there's no resolving that - but we don't want our next-door neighbour to be able to stand in his garden and peer into ours, which he can do at the moment. The back wall is never going to shield us from the windows of the houses behind ours, and to be honest, those windows don't really bother us that much. It's the left side wall which is the main issue.

The brick paving was our choice and something we had done about 5 years ago so not something we're going to change as it was quite expensive. To be honest at the time it didn't even cross our minds to change the layout of the garden - prior to that it was just concrete but in the same places as the paving currently is.

Still not 100% sure what to do with the climbers really, and still not convinced that there's a plant which will be cat-friendly, a good climber all year round, and happy growing in a container on an east-facing wall...

 

A friend in the UK grew Trachelospermum jasminoides (Star Jasmine) very successfully in a big trough in their courtyard garden. It not only flowered really well but the leaves turned bright red in winter. Spectacular! Go for it
Zephirine Drouhin is a lovely rose and totally thornless, but not the easiest to grow. It's prone to all the nasty rose diseases even if conditions are ideal, so I'd suggest you have a browse on David Austin's website for a perpetual-flowering climber or two! The ones with rambler 'blood' are brilliant if the flexible stems are trained on wires so they form a fan shape....you'd get flowers all along the stem.
The list of plants you could grow in a sheltered courtyard is excitingly long.....only limits might be imposed by soil type, so it would be worth doing a soil test once the bed is ready for planting.

 

Noisette, that's very encouraging about the Star Jasmine, so thanks for sharing that! I love the idea of the bright red flowers in the winter. I think we'd definitely like to try to grow that.

As for the roses, thanks for the tips, and I will definitely check out that website for more advice. The reason I want thornless roses is that in our area, we don't get a garden waste bin, and don't produce the right sort of waste in the right quantities to make a compost bin workable, so have to bag up all of our garden waste to take to the household recycling centre. So thorny cuttings can be a real pain in the backside!

I will definitely invest in a soil tester, thanks!

 

I see your point (geddit?) about the rose prunings! Keep us posted about the progress

 

Well we've now got a completely blank canvas to start planting and I need to figure out where to start!

I've been doing my research and trying to make a list of all the non-toxic plants I can. With our cats being indoor cats, not cats that are used to roaming free, they tend to try to eat everything and are not "street wise" (garden wise?) to what is toxic and what isn't. So it is important to us that we don't plant anything that could harm them.

We definitely love the idea of a climbing rose, not sure which one yet though so have been researching those. Definitely more convenient for us to have a thornless rose though considering our waste disposal options! We still love the idea of star jasmine. I like some of the phlox varieties and we also want to plant some herbs. We have a small raised bed for planting a few vegetables but we may move the raised bed. We also have a huge trough, 1 metre long and quite deep/wide too, for the left hand trellis by the shed.

The trellis is now up and the beds have been dug over ready for planting. I guess we should get something planted then! Here are some up to date pics.

Should we start planting now or is it too late in the year? I guess it depends what we're planting. Do people still recommend using weed guard sheets?

 

You could always have a jasmine officinale which has small jasmine flowers, highly scented. They do get big after some years, producing a cloud of foliage. They are twiners, so would probably be able to clamber up trellis but afterwards would have to just sit on the top of it in a big bundle.

I agree with comments about Zephirine Drouhin, I have had one for years, it gets terrible black spot and never flowers very profusely.

If buying a rambler check it is not one of the giant ones eg Kiftsgate, Rambling Rector, as they grow into frighteningly huge plants, totally unsuited to a small garden. As well being viciously thorny. I put much of my garden waste into the wheelie bin as there is no way I'm bagging up rose prunings and taking them anywhere! My council has never complained. Have you tested out prunings in the wheelie bin?

How about a wisteria trained out sideways to the left on the high bit of trellis on top of the wall?

A small, airy tree, in a lollipop shape, planted at the bottom oe garden would do a lot to make the garden seem more secluded. A sorbus of some kind, maybe? How about Sorbus Pink Pearl as mentioned in this article?

 

Thank you Madahhlia for your helpful response!

I really like the look of a couple of the jasmine plants... particularly jasminum nudiflorum (winter jasmine) and trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine) so I think maybe I will focus on just different varieties of jasmine for the trellis?

I think you are definitely onto something regarding a tree... I've been looking at Sorbus trees. I love the colours of the Sorbus 'Autumn Spire' which is small and compact for tiny gardens.

Another question I have is how many plants to buy?!! For example, say I wanted two or three varieties of jasmine to cover the entire trellis. How many plants would I need? This is something that I, as a brand new gardener, am struggling to understand. (Sorry if it's a bit of a daft question!)

I have a large planter which is 100cm in length, 45cm deep and 45cm high, and I was hoping to grow jasmine in that. Would I just put one jasmine plant in it? Or multiple? For example, if I were to go for this one: http://www.mailordertrees.co.uk/Jas...+Jasmine+Plant)/0_caaa254_caaa256/PRAB159.htm - it says it'll spread 10ft x 10ft but if I had it on that left hand side to the left of the shed, would I just need one plant, trained upwards from the planter and then across horizontally? Or would I need to buy multiple plants?

So sorry - I know this comes across as such a stupid question, but I am so new to this. :(

 

Hi SJ, One plant of each will be enough. If the jasmines are well-fed and watered they'll soon cover the space available. More than two and they'll be competing for root-space

 

Ooh that's good news. Thank you. It's hard to imagine anything growing in there with it being so bare at the moment. I have a lot to learn but am looking forward to getting stuck in!