advice on fixing trellis to a battered old fence

[razumov]

I have bought three packs of it to grow some clematis (it is the thin bamboo type). I have not dealt with climbers before

The clematis will need space between the trellis and the fence, so that it can twine around it (and so that you can tie it on, in the early stages). Also, the air circulation helps prevent disease. The best way to do it is to fix battens (long but thin pieces of timber) to the fence and then fix the trellis to that, but just how wonky/battered/decrepit is the fence? Us it likely to collapse under the weight of trellis and plants?

Thanks for replying. No it can prob withstand batons if they are fixed carefully or I could prop the bottom of the trellis on the ground to distribute the weight?

Trellis is probably made from softwood and standing on the ground means it is in constant contact with moisture and will rot more quickly. If your fence posts are more solid than the fence itself you could attach battens horizontally to the posts (roofing laths would work for a light weight climber like clematis, not a montana though!). You can then attach the trellis to the framework of battens and will have the circulation/space for growth problem solved, too.

If the fence is rickety and it is yours I would repair/replace first because once the trellis is up it is much more work to carry out maintenance.

I agree with Bienchen about not standing the trellis on the soil. When I put up my latest bit of trellis, I put the battens vertically down the fence posts, and screwed the trellis onto it top and bottom.

Good advice - many thanks. What is the best way of fixing the trellis - would I need to use a power tool or would hammer and nails be enough - I am wworried about the whole thing falling down once it is supporting a heavy weight

If it is a clematis from goup 2 or 3 you really don't have to worry (too much) about the weight of the plant, just the trellis itself.

It helps to have a second person to hold the wood in place and ensure everything is straight.

I am not a fan of hammer and nails because I find that screwing is more long lived. If you attach trellis to fence or wooden fence post you need a drill (either electric or cordless) with a small drill bit for use on wood.

You just need to drill a small pilot hole (1.5mm or 2mm diameter drill bit) through the trellis and a bit into the fence/fence post. Choose screws that are long enough to go through the thickness of the batten plus about half an inch to go into the fence post. I use screws that are about 4 or 5mm thick and ideally are galvanized so they don't rust. By drilling a pilot hole it is much easier to drive the screws in straight, cordless screwdriver helps but can be done with a simple screwdriver as well.

Then repeat for the trellis itself to go onto the batten, you may find that the same size screws works.

It really sounds more complicated than it is.

Make sure you plant the clematis about a foot away from the wall and get it to lean towards the fence at an angle of about 45 degrees. handful of bonemeal in the planting hole helps it get off to a good start.

Hope my ramblings make sense, am distracted by Olympics... :)

Again I agree with all that Bienchen says, but if you have foxes in your garden I might skip the bonemeal. In my experience, it guarantees that the foxes will dig up whatever you've planted.

Thanks again - I never realised that our occasional fox visitors were responsible for all the dug up plants a few months ago. I blamed the neighbours cat!

I find it very difficult to know which of our visiting wildlife are responsible for which bit of damage, but I'm pretty sure it was foxes - being the omnivores - who were after the bonemeal. Cats seem to prefer digging on open soil, to bury their vile poo. My most recent problem was squirrels (I'm fairly sure, as they're demonstrably clever) chewing through the cable between my solar fairy lights and the charger unit, so that they could move it out of the way to bury peanuts there. Grr!