Ideas for something pretty to cover back fence

[dizzydo]

Yippeee!! The holly tree in the garden that backs on to us has finally been chopped down. It completely overshadowed our garden and nothing grew underneath it. Now it is no more!

I have a plain brown fence (about six feet high) with concrete posts (our side) with a six inch walled flower bed that is very narrow (probably no more than about six - nine inches in depth. I would like to just bung in some large apple blossom trees to cover the whole thing in one go rather than wait for clematis or something to grow. Any suggestions for what might be successful. Garden is fairly shady but gets sun for some part of the day (more now!) Help would be much appreciated. I know it wont be cheap as buying mature plants never is but would just like an instant solution.

Thank you.

[hub2dee]

You can't plant a tree in a six inch bed. Do you mean six feet wide ?

You can't plant a tree in a bed six to nine inches deep either ! Do you mean it is raised 6 - 9 inches, but has soil underneath ?

[Janh]

Clematis montana - I have the pinkish one with bronzeish leaves growing in a tub about 12" across and maybe 15" deep, it grows like mad and scrambles everywhere, very easy to grow and worth waiting for it to get going IMHO. You see it along fences everywhere.

Or else Russian vine (mile-a-minute) but that's a bit messy. The clematis is quite attractive.

Or one of those potato plants whose name escapes me, there's a blue and a white, they grow very fast too but need trellis or wires I think.

[JoolsToo]

clematis armandii - its evergreen looks beautiful too - thats what I'm going for.

says its easy to grow - a big plus point!

[Janh]

And I have a kerria growing in a similar walled flower bed that gets no sun at all. Also needs training.

[JoolsToo]

hub told me about it

[Janh]

I have one of those, Jools - it seems a bit susceptible to wilt (? leaves went all scrunchy and brown last year) but loads of big white flowers this year.

[JoolsToo]

oh blimey - I need something thats idiot proof - it looks lovely in the images tho!

[Janh]

Solanum is the potato one.

[Janh]

It's relatively idiot proof if I have kept it going, Jools, I am a terrible gardener! Give it a go