Honeysuckle, jasmine and other climbers
peroroncino
Posts: 74
in Plants
I'd like to plant honeysuckle and other attractive native climbers and jasmine on 6ft X 6ft trellis fence panels in order to create screening alongside the neighbour's broken 3ft tall fence. But I feel I might not have the right conditions to grow them.
I have a concreted garden with 40cm (at least) deep flower beds that are 5ft long and ≈2ft wide, and run along the property boundary. Each bed has 1.5m tall roses (thick, woody, bare stems). In between each bed is a 5ft gap of concrete. There are 4 beds and 3 gaps.
The plan is to put alternating trellis panels with climbers at each bed or along the full boundary. The thing I'm unsure about is the soil. The top layer is black, smooth and clumpy when wet but dry underneath. In summer it cracks and becomes nearly impossible to dig, so I'm assuming it's heavy clay. I say it's at least 40cm deep because I tried digging it today and got tired after reaching that point due to compaction and my short arms and not wanting to damage the rose roots. But I saw that the undersoil was quite dry.
Having read some threads on here I understand that honeysuckle needs deep roots and organic matter. Would my current flower beds be good enough or would I have to make a raised bed on top of the concrete? My garden faces SW, so the plant would be planted on the NW side of the trellis (receives sun from the SE on the neighbour's side in the morning, then from the south at noon and west till late evening). I also live in NW London
Are there any alternatives that are similar? E.g. smells nice, flowers for a few months, beneficial for bees and berries for birds, not toxic to cats.
Sorry for the essay-style post, I don't know how to explain this shortly.
0
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.