plants to cover a north facing fence belonging to my neighbour.

Sarah262

Hi everyone

Has anyone got any ideas of what to plant against a north facing fence. I'm not sure that I should attach climbers as it is not my fence. It is tall and and ugly concrete posts.

I already have some shrubs which I may need to move as it is going to be more shady.

I have put in a honeysuckle which might be happy.

BobFlannigon

Does it get any sun at all?  North-facing can be quite sunny if you don't have a house obstructing it (e.g. in a west-facing garden)

I don't think you can attach anything unless you first get permission from your neighbour, but they may not mind if you ask them.  You could place a trellis immediately behind the fence and grow things up that.

Otherwise a freestanding tree or something?  Without knowing the position and size of your garden I'm not sure I can give you much in the way of very useful advice...

Sarah262

Thanks Bob and Tetley for your answers.

It is a long east facing garden and not overlooked by houses but does get shaded by a huge conifer which sits at the bottom of my far left corner and also by an old plum and large holly on the south facing side.  However the fence will cast most of the shade.  it will get some light for a short time. 

I had thought of hydrangea petiolaris especially as it doesn't need trellis but something I read said fencing wasn't strong enough. Is this true?

At the moment I have a photinia, ribes, viburnum (it has white snowball flowers), forsythia (remains of a very old hedge), some kind of shrub cotoneaster, japanese anemenomes, bear's breeches and an old lilac on my north facing border which I think will be fine.

I will have to see if the penstemon, crocosmia and butterfly shrubs struggle. 

My garden seems always to be in  state of mid-project. 

Fairygirl

As already mentioned - the fence isn't yours. Please make sure you discuss it with your neighbour first as it can lead to all sorts of problems.

Alternatively, screen it on your side with shrubs, or erect another fence of your own for climbers. I personally don't like hydrangea pet.  on fences - they don't do it justice, and it suits walls much better, but that's a personal thing. It will certainly need a very strong structure anyway - it gets very big if it's happy  

Sarah262

Good point Fairygirl. Perhaps I should just hang some fern filled baskets on the concrete posts if the shrubs don't hide them.

I have done a lot of pruning of my forsythias and lilac which are looking better.

Can't wait for Spring.