North-west wall ideas

Hi again,

We've got a north-west facing wall on our house, which has a small bed for part of its length, about eight feet long by nine inches wide. The driveway runs past this bed. It gets some reasonable sun for part of the afternoon but is definitely "part shade."

Ideally, I'd like some ground cover, and a flowering climber to cover the wall to a height of about ten feet.

I'm thinking of a climbing rose - perhaps Gloire de Dijon - underplanted by periwinkles. I understand periwinkles can be a bit invasive but it's a very isolated bed, due to the driveway.

Does this sound reasonable, or might the bed be too small to support a climber? Any other ideas?

Many thanks

 

Will a rose not impede vehicle access Amanensia? A piccie always helps members to give good advice ,
Jenny

 

A good question! How far out from the wall will it come? Up to a couple of feet should be fine. I'll grab a pic when I get five minutes...

 

do you have any cover or is it open to the elements?

Ive recently done the same thing you see, and found that a car port and a bed next to the drive create an amazing microclimate, so Ive gone with this..




Its a but scruffy and the moment, ill get better photos after Ive finished dinner.

 

That's rather pretty, indeed. I don't have the depth for the trellis, I'll have to use wires. Here's a picture of the site at the moment. It's somewhat sheltered, due to the gate, which is more of a windbreak than it appears. My main concern is the rather tiny depth meaning that there won't be a lot of root space.

 

oh yes, it's fairly thin layer, the white wall should help though.

For climbers, anything like Lonicera henryi, (evergreen honeysuckle), Clematis armandii, Jasminum officinale, maybe Trachelospermum jasminoides.. Solanum crispum, wide ranges of Clematis perhaps? All good on a northwest wall.

Perhaps some of the big leaved Ivys?

 

Here is my border, but it's bigger like you say and has more depth.





How about if you plant something in the larger box border you have on the right of the photo and train it to climb over that wall at the back, this is conceivable.

 

Ah, it's the empty border in the middle of the photo I was talking about - is that the one you mean? There's no border to the right of the gate (well, not until you get to the currently skeletal wisteria you can see around the corner.)

It just occured to me that I might be being a shade misleading - when I say I'm concerned about depth, I mean the size of the border from the wall to the driveway, not the physical depth of soil beneath ground level, which is I think reasonably substantial.

 

oh well I wouldn't worry about that, I'm not sure that you'll be able to get many groundcover plants (if any) in there, but you will be able to get a climber in there fairly easily.. and then maybe you can put some bedding plants in or something?

 

Climbing Hydrangea petiolaris? I grew one on a North wall in a not-huge pot at a previous house (if you are worried about the soil in the border)

 

Ah, I hadn't thought of hydrangea. Toss-up between that and an appropriate rose, I think. Thanks!

 

Not sure that Gloire de Dijon will be comfortable on a shaded wall? But I'm no expert ...