A rendered and painted wall can be a nice feature too. If you use some carefully placed specimen shrubs or planting and something like a sundial/ birdbath/ large pot which you can place in front of it, the wall will become part of the picture. It just depends how big a run of wall you have and how much of it you want to hide.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
A neighbour when I lived elsewhere had just such a wall in a teeny garden - she painted a mural of a lake, with a tree and rock fringed lakeside and boats on the water - it sounds kitsch but it gave that little patch such light - she trained clematis up over where she'd painted the trees and grew lilies in pots in front of it and it worked really well. We would sit out there for our morning coffee gazing across the lake to the far shores - it looked a bit like Lake Como
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi Dove, I thought campsis had aerial roots? Would it not cling to the wall? It's what has put me off campsis for one particular site - I don't want it marking the bricks.
Mine hasn't produced any yet - I think it produces them when it's more mature so it still needs help to cover the fence/wall - mine is covering an area about 6ft high by across so far and no sign of adventitious roots.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Me i would first paint then put up some training wires and put in clematis and honeysuckle either side and in the middle of the wall a huge mirror so it extends the garden when looking at it, and when you are done, Chelsea flower show is your next stop
Hi Jen, we've got a breeze block wall too and I did think of painting it, but decided against it because it's holey, you need an awful lot of paint to cover it well, which works out expensive and it's a lot of hard work.
We screwed diamond patterned trellis on battens and then planted various roses, star jasmine, escallonia, and ceanthos on it, south-east facing, and clay soil. Initially expensive, but won't have to do it again hopefully.
The wall is about 4 ft high (which has got the diamond trellis on it with another fence on top. (The neighbour's garden is at a higher level than ours).
Those look fab Lizzie. especially if that photo on the sign is what it looked like before! I got £50 of gardening vouchers for my birthday at the beginning of the month so was planning on using that to cover the back wall / fence. some trellis and some climbers should do the trick - i'll have a look at the garden centres to see if there are any of the types you guys have suggested. Thanks for the advice and inspiration all!
Glad you liked it Thomas. It is sensible to screw narrow bits of batten to the wall first to allow climbers room to twine and air to circulate, and then screw the trellis to the battens.
Good luck, show us the after shots please when you've finished.
Posts
A rendered and painted wall can be a nice feature too. If you use some carefully placed specimen shrubs or planting and something like a sundial/ birdbath/ large pot which you can place in front of it, the wall will become part of the picture. It just depends how big a run of wall you have and how much of it you want to hide.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
A neighbour when I lived elsewhere had just such a wall in a teeny garden - she painted a mural of a lake, with a tree and rock fringed lakeside and boats on the water - it sounds kitsch but it gave that little patch such light - she trained clematis up over where she'd painted the trees and grew lilies in pots in front of it and it worked really well. We would sit out there for our morning coffee gazing across the lake to the far shores - it looked a bit like Lake Como
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi Dove, I thought campsis had aerial roots? Would it not cling to the wall? It's what has put me off campsis for one particular site - I don't want it marking the bricks.
Mine hasn't produced any yet - I think it produces them when it's more mature so it still needs help to cover the fence/wall - mine is covering an area about 6ft high by across so far and no sign of adventitious roots.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hi Jen,
Me i would first paint then put up some training wires and put in clematis and honeysuckle either side and in the middle of the wall a huge mirror so it extends the garden when looking at it, and when you are done, Chelsea flower show is your next stop
Hi Jen, we've got a breeze block wall too and I did think of painting it, but decided against it because it's holey, you need an awful lot of paint to cover it well, which works out expensive and it's a lot of hard work.
We screwed diamond patterned trellis on battens and then planted various roses, star jasmine, escallonia, and ceanthos on it, south-east facing, and clay soil. Initially expensive, but won't have to do it again hopefully.
The wall is about 4 ft high (which has got the diamond trellis on it with another fence on top. (The neighbour's garden is at a higher level than ours).
A south-facing wall is ideal for heat-loving annuals like tomatoes or tender fruits like peaches.
Those look fab Lizzie. especially if that photo on the sign is what it looked like before! I got £50 of gardening vouchers for my birthday at the beginning of the month so was planning on using that to cover the back wall / fence. some trellis and some climbers should do the trick - i'll have a look at the garden centres to see if there are any of the types you guys have suggested. Thanks for the advice and inspiration all!
Glad you liked it Thomas. It is sensible to screw narrow bits of batten to the wall first to allow climbers room to twine and air to circulate, and then screw the trellis to the battens.
Good luck, show us the after shots please when you've finished.