The spring is finally here, and that means it’s time to think about gardening. Some of you keen gardeners will have already been planning your space throughout the winter months, but for those of you who might have just moved house to a new garden, or those who are considering a re-design of your current space here’s a suggestion for using landscaping to turn your garden into a something unique. One way to create a beautiful and personal garden and maximise the space you have in the process is to use the space around the edges by building a fence and selecting ‘creeper’ plants.
For fences, there is a huge amount of choice. You will most definitely find a style of fence that suits the space you’re in. A few options are the classic picket fence, metal fences, timber palisade fences, and chestnut paling, but the probably the most common for climbing plants is trellis fencing. Trellis fencing can be designed in pretty much any shape and can be installed in almost any style of garden as it is extremely versatile. For instance, if you want a bit more privacy, you could also consider putting a trellis fencing panel on top of a closeboard panel. Another fantastic and unique kind of fencing is Hurdle Fencing, which you might want to choose if your garden has a heritage or cottage feel.
In terms of the best plants to select to grow up your fence and provide you with that secret garden feel, here are some of the best for both growth speed and appearance. One of the most easily recognised is probably Boston Ivy, which is unrelated to true Ivy, but is a member of the grape family. This plant grows quite quickly, and attaches itself to fences or buildings by sticky disks. Boston Ivy is quite similar to Virginia creeper which it is related to. Virginia creeper can reach heights of up to 30 meters in the wild, although it is used commonly as an ornamental plant as it produces clusters of little greenish flowers.
If you would prefer to have flowering plants, clematis is a highly popular creeper. A member of the buttercup family, clematis plants flower at different times throughout the year and like to have their blooms in the sun, and their stalks in the shade. With around 200 species, you’re sure to find one that blooms when you’d like it to and is the right style of flower to match the feel of your garden. Another lovely climber suited to the British climate is the climbing hydrangea. This plant is ideal to grow on North facing walls, and prefers to be in a bit of shade as the flowers last longer than they would in direct sunlight.
A classic climber is the Tea-scented Chinas, which are named for their fragrance being reminiscent of green tea. They are repeat flowerers, but they do have weaker stems so you will need to tend to them a bit more than a more hardy flowering plant. Other climbing roses are Zéphirine Drouhin, which are a variety of Bourbon roses, or the hybrid Noisette variety. In addition, many of the old and newer varieties of miniature roses have climbing forms, so you are quite likely to find a rose of some size or shape to suit your tastes.
Worried about the permits you would need to put up a fence? There are only a few restrictions, which makes it easier to plan as you won’t have to worry about going through the proper channels. If you are in a listed property or are planning on building a fence onto a neighbouring listed property, you will need a permit. If you want to build a fence higher than 1 metre next to a motor way, you will also need to have the proper permission. Other than that, any fence less than 2 meters will not require a permit.
If you’re looking to build a fence in the near future, we’re able very happy to share with our readers a deal from AVS Fencing, a leading UK specialist website and online supplier of garden fencing and landscaping. We are delighted to offer our visitors a 5% discount on all of their orders over £200 when they visit the site and enter our unique discount code LANDSCAPEJUICENETWORK on the checkout page.
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