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Fence Screen
bjcWoiwEOJ5
Posts: 6
in Plants
Just completed building a T&G (solid) fence the length of my driveway. It’s 22m long and varies in height from 1.3m at the entrance to 2m at the garage. It runs N-S and my side of the fence is west facing so gets sun most of the day. It’s a very nice fence but looks rather stark and imposing so would like to have climbing plants the full length. The soil is clay but don’t mind replacing it. Was planning to install horizontal stainless steel wires every 40cm but realised I have no idea what I’m doing, either with the mesh or choosing and growing plants. Any suggestions for a complete novice? Essentially I would like a riot of colour all year round but no idea what I’m doing.
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In that aspect you can grow rambling roses, climbing roses, clematis at the taller end of the fence but I would go for lower shrub roses and other shrubs or perennials along the lower part. I would also put the horizontal wires at 30cm intervals using special vine eyes (screws with a loop end) from a good DIY store and soem tensioners at the ends to keep them taught.
Do you have any particular colour preferences and whereabouts are you? Exposure to temperature changes, winds and rain will affect what will be happy.
From the fence to the driveway edge?
Sorry if I missed that part I have read twice got the height and length..
Even if training on the fence, you don't want anything that will spread too far if you have a narrow area it will be hitting the car or grabbing you when getting in and out.
If it is wide enough I would maybe use trellis in front of the fence so you can maintain the actual fence or do not mind removing the plants from time to time.
There are some relatively (almost) thornless repeat small rambler roses that might fit the bill along with some clematis for colour combinations and longer flowering season.
As Obelisk says clay is not a problem especially improved and roses really like it.
The easiest clematis to manage re pruning regimes are the group 3s. It's a good idea, I think, to contrast rose flower colour with clematis flower colour and you can be subtle or garish but that's a matter of personal preference so give us a clue and we'll point you at colour options.
We bought the house (1930 bungalow) 5 years ago and spent the first 3 years or so getting the house up to scratch. Only started on the gardens (we have 4 separate areas) in the last 12 months and have almost completed the first (rear garden with patio waiting for good weather to get final bags of topsoil down for a lawn). The front areas with the driveway are bare earth which I’ve been treating with Kurtail Gold over the last four years to try to eliminate Mares Tail (hoping this year will see it gone). The plan is to remove the driveway entrance gate and effectively shift the entrance by a few feet. So the border at the new fence could be anything up to four feet.
Before planting anything, buy some heavy-duty galvanised iron wire (around 2.5mm diameter), and a lot of large vine eyes like these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193317605667?var=493509835214&chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=493509835214_193317605667&targetid=1140163971729&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9044872&poi=&campaignid=12128858833&mkgroupid=117045676459&rlsatarget=pla-1140163971729&abcId=9300480&merchantid=7267454&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvP6ABhCjARIsAH37rbS8_S3n64mcODGilycOoRCMyWk7O0Qa0zrHn8jUapVfaf4RhScisyIaAtcQEALw_wcB
Screw the vine eyes into your fenceposts, spaced about 40cm apart and with the hole vertical, not horizontal. Attach a length of wire at one end of each row, thread it through to the last, tighten up and fasten off. If you have the right size of vine eye there should be several inches of clearance between the fence panel and the wires. You could either put down some boards so you don't compress the soil, or you could do your digging and prep after putting on the wires.
In terms of planting, Group 3 clematis, as @Obelixx says, are your ideal bet because they can be cut back to about 30-40 cm from ground level in late February--perhaps later where you are--and then you can disentangle the old stems and sort out your roses, tie them in and so on, before growth gets going. You'll need to feed with bone meal in the autumn and some rose food in the spring every year.
The world's your oyster for planting choices. If you like pastels, among clematis there are 'Emilia Plater', 'Huldine', 'Betty Corning', 'Little Nell', to name but a few, or a different species is Clematis 'Sweet Sensation', which smells lovely.
For roses, 2 m is not actually that high for many climbers and ramblers, although you can induce them to grow horizontally by tying in their long growths. Still, I'd go for something modest in size. Some Hybrid Musks, such as 'Cornelia' and 'Moonlight' are very good for the kind of situations you describe. 'Warm Welcome' is a lovely small patio climber. 'Ghislaine de Féligonde' is more apricot, and 'Alister Stella Gray', 'Francis E. Lester' and 'Snow Goose' are some of my own favourites. I'm just now trying Peter Beales' 'Friendship of Strangers' but it hasn't got big enough to judge properly yet.
Finally, you might want to give yourself a longer flowering period by having an early flowering climber interspersed, such as a honeysuckle; and at the end nearest the garage, you'll want to use something that can be kept tight against the fence by trimming, such as pyracantha. I would think that on 22m, removing around 3m for the garage door play, you'd need to allow about 3-4m spread sideways per rose (of the size I have in mind), so about 5-6 would be more than enough to fill up your space, and probably fewer.
I attach a few more photos if that will help. The top of the fence is level and the ground drops towards the garage (about 75cm). The grass in the first photo is the first front garden nearest the house. The hedge separates this from the garden area nearest the road (the "building site" area). You can just glimpse the main hedge at the gate in the 2nd photo. Planning to move the entrance several feet to the right and also widen it - some of the hedge will be removed. Eventually want to have a drive-in area and dispense with the gate.