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Defensive Plants Advice
Thorpeedo
Posts: 5
Hi Guys,
Can someone who is of the 'green-fingered' variety offer some advice please?
I am trying to find the best defensive plants to run along my brick wall to stop people climbing over it. I want to run a trellis along the top and then have the shrubs/plant/bush to grow through it and along.
Also, where would I buy such a thing?
Many thanks
Thorpeedo
0
Posts
Berberis! I love it in all it's forms and then I swear at myself for having a garden full of spikey plants! Some can be kept neatly trimmed to form a "proper" hedge (Darwinii- has wee tiny leaves like mini holly) and some can be left to ramble. I hacked down a ten foot monster the year before last and it's back to about four feet again. Some of the spikes were three inches long.
Berberis and Pyracantha are very good deterrents. They're evergreen (apart from the purple Berberis) and readily available in Garden Centres adn DIY stores. You can entwine or tie them in to the trellis. A good jaggy rambling rose would also do as you can tie that in along the trellis to make a barrier, and they don't require the pruning that a climber does. One would probably be enough, planted at one end, depending on the length you need.
I'm assuming you can plant into an area on your side of the wall, or did you mean plant something on top of it in some way? Can you offer a few more details?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I use Berberis, Pyracantha and Mohonia along a fence. I prune outward facing branches of the first two.
Thanks guys, very helpful
@fairygirl, I can plant the shurb down at one end of the wall and then maybe let it grow along.
I need it to run along 7 metres ideally.
As you can see, I'm a total beginner. :-)
Thanks again.
Thorpeedo
The only "shrubs" I've seen that'll do 7 metres are brambles. A rambling rose as FG suggested will send out big nasty arms but I can't think that planting it at one end is going to work. Plant it in the middle and let it go both ways. That'll maybe give you ten feet of cover.
It's hard to think of something without a few more details. Is it a countryside boundary fence or a back yard wall? If you have decent ground for planting then consider a mixed native hedge. You can choose from a selection of flowering, prickly, wildlife etc from a decent website. (Hedging direct or best4hedges. I've used neither so I can't recomend but that's the kind of thing.). How high is the wall? More clues please, more clues!
Ok, ok. :-)
We are an end-of-terrace house with a back yard wall. The brick wall is about 6 feet high.
I do have a flower bed that runs to the middle so I can plant something that could spread.
To make things easier, I have attached picture.
Thanks for your help once again.
Thorpeedo
See that across the street? That's Clematis montana (maybe rubens if I could see it better). Not the least bit prickly but it grows at a mile a minute and would cover your wall in no time. It wouldn't deter burglars but kids with nothing to do would likely move on to easier pickings. You could maybe fasten a long slim piece of trellis across the inside which would give the clematis something to hang on to and would make climbing more awkward for people.
Clematis likes it's feet in the cool and it's head in the sun. Plant it in the bin corner with lots of food and watch it go.
Fab, thanks.
Is there something a little thorny I can also plant?
Sorry, I forgot to mention this bit. On the other side of the wall there is a telephone exchange box. It's easy for someone to climb onto it and then over the wall.
I was thinking of having a spikey plant there too so it deters them from putting their hands on it. Either that or have plants with those metal spikes.
I know you can't stop someone who really wants to get in but I want to make it awkward enough for opportunists.
We haven't got a major break-in problem but I have a little one on the way in September and I want to protect what we have.
A pyracantha. Some of them have quite upright habits and they are spikey as anything. Red Column has is, as the name suggests, tall and thinnish but I was disappointed at the lack of berries on mine. I have Orange Glow and it's a substantial plant after about five years. If you buy a bigger one then obviously you're off to a head start.
To the best of my knowledge they can be trained against walls and can even be tidied up around the lower area to almost like a standard. Pansyface posted one on here some time ago and it was a doozy! Google images and you'll see what I mean.