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How can I cover my house?
We have a gross white pebble dash on the front of our home and looking for a way to make it more pleasing to the eye. Its a bit stark and dated and would love to find a solution for it.
We had the idea of growing ivy up the walls as it is fast growing and looks great but have read in many places that this can cause damage to the building structure and dry out the walls. Is this true?
And if so can any one recommend another climber with would be good for this.
We would need to dig a bed out front to do this and something with not to much maintenance would be ideal.
Many thanks for the help!
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Pebble dash won't take kindly to any self clinging climber so I suggest you erect supports to cover your wall and then train climbing roses, rambling roses, clematis, honeysuckle, pyracantha, wisteria and so on. You can also combine roses with clems, for example to give a longer season of interest.
Supports can be elaborate - plain or stained terllis panels attached to battes which are screwed to tehwall. The battens allow air to circulate behind which is better for the plant and, if you hinge the trellis to the bottom batten, you can let it down to do wall maintenance such as painting without having to cut down the plants.
A cheaper and more discreet alternative is to screw strong vine eyes at regular intervals in horizontal lines at intervals of 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45cms). You then stretch tension wires between them (available for good DIY and garden stores) and tie in the plants as they grow. The horizontal training increases flower power.
I have both systems and they work well. Two trellis panels support two clems on the back wall, either side of our back kitchen window and wires allow a rampant Kiftsgate rose to cover our dull brick frontage. This rose will happily grow to 10 metres or more. It only flwoers once but then has healthy foliage for the summer and a profusion of hips that give a show through autumn and winter.
Pebbledash is a two edged sword. Breaking the integrity of the outer seal can allow water to enter behind and cause all sorts of problems if you drill into it. If you drill into into you have to reseal around the holes after securing any anchors and although it can be done by diy you really need to know what you're doing. If you reseal it after putting in anchors I'd get a professional in for piece of mind.
Any support screwed to a wall to support plants needs to be very secure to take the strain of wind and wind resistance once the plants grow. Our trellis panels have been up 10 years or more and have withstood strong gales and even a tornado but I did use long screws for the battens and good brass ones to attach the panels to the battens.
Agree about sealing fixings done in pebble dash. If that's a real problem, think about erecting posts in front of the walls - bury their feet in concrete for security - and attaching trellis or wires to those. The posts and trellis could be painted to match the walls and reduce their visibility or contrasting colours to add interest. I stained our wooden trellis dark green so it looks good when bare in winter and also prolongs the life of the panels. here's one recently planted up with a clematis after Rosa New Dawn was wiped out by a -32C frost.
Candees, which way does your wall face, is it in sun or shade? I have a hydrangea Petiolaris on a west wall.
From what I am reading on this thread, I gather:
1] Candees, you loathe the pebble dash [I would to]
2] It appears that Ivy will cause problems by rooting into the pebble dash and loosening it.
Wouldn't growing Ivy be a cheap, if long winded way of getting rid of the pebble dash or would the pebble dash have to be already unstable?