What to grow up this wall?
Hi all,
I wondered if you can help (I am terrible at these things)
We have recently created a new parking area dug into a bank which has resulted in us having a long stretch of very boring wall - pic below.
The wall is about 1.8m high and 15m long, the earth around it will be grass-seeded and a hawthorn hedge will be planted along the fence at the top but i would love to have something growing up/across the wall to break it up a bit.
Any ideas what would be nice along here? my husband would quite like some espalier fruit trees, but i'm sure there are other options.
I'm not too bothered about flowers a such, just something that looks leafy through the summer and can be trained to spread.
Any ideas appreciated, thank you :-)
Note: ground is clay based, position is south-facing (sun trap, very warm)
Posts
Espalier trees would work well.
Trachelospermum jasminoides (Star Jasmine) springs to mind and may be worth considering.
It's evergreen and has heavily scented white jasmine like flowers throughout the summer. It's easily trained and can be cut back any time if it gets too big.
Evergreen clematis are another option
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
What a great backdrop for a formal row of evergreens, even some topiary, over the top of which could be trained pleached trees, or espaliers, to keep with the formality. Also, perhaps, look at vitis coignettiae, for its fantastic autumn colour. Beware, vigorous.
H-C
Thanks so much for your replies, I shall do a bit of googling on these plants :-)
Also if we were to plant some fruit espalier trees, is it best to keep them all the same variety or is it ok to mix them up a bit e.g a plum, apple and a pear?
Sorry just thought of some other questions...
If we were to go with plants like jasmine or clematis how many plants would you buy for this area and would you train them formally in lines like espalier or just let them flow along the wall.
If we went with fruit trees i would probably plant three in equal spaces and train them horizontally as opposed to fan shape - or what do you think?
Thanks :-)
Probably not the height there for anything other than a two tier espalier. Fans need 6ft or so. I'd stick with apples, three compatible varieties. Plum will want to get too tall, pears are sometimes disappointingly indifferent about the fruiting thing.
H-C
You could grow a grape up there something nice to eat. Roses love clay.
I've got 3 Star jasmines in my garden, also on clay and had several others over the years.
I would guess planting 6-8 ft apart and train them as you like, they're very easy, but will need some sort of framework to attach to - wires with straining bolts are ideal. Have look at some of the Images on Google to get some ideas.
The only problem I have with them on occasion is scale insects, but there are plenty of sprays available that work. I usually find they get the insects because I've let the ground around them dry out and it's stressed and weakened them a bit.
I usually just sprinkle some rose fertiliser around them when I do the roses and a good compost mulch in autumn/spring.
After flowering they put on a lot of growth which you can tie-in or cut off.
I don't have any evergreen clematis, but my neighbour has an clematis armandii covering a big pergola, but it rarely flowers, Lovely big glossy leaves.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
You know me so well Tetley, I did mean climbing, we have a golden showers on a shed, in 3 years it has gone bananas, looks so pretty hides the shed (which does need replacing) flowers for so many months of the year, and yes definitely Honeysuckle, always good to have scent!
If it were me, I would plant two fruit trees, and some climbers in there, jasminoides or clematis, perhaps even something winter flowering in the middle, with the fruit trees either side, for longer season of interest I would also then plant trailing plants above the wall, as well as maybe something like some nice geraniums/pelargoniums for a lovely combination of colour for people to see when they arrive. Fragrant plants could also be a good idea for a warm welcome into the parking area.