Tall pretty shrubs

[jasmine1971]

Hi - would welcome some suggestions for tallish shrubs.

My neighbours have removed the 4ft fence out the front separating our two gardens and replaced it with a (just under) 3ft wall.

That's all fine, they did it with my permission (although it is much lower than they said it was going to be) BUT ... they keep their bins and motorbikes in the front garden which I don't really want to see. So I have put trellis along the wall (with their permission) and it's really pretty and now comes up to 5ft.

I would like to screen it even more with some tallish shrubs, evergreen if possible.

The problem is that they poured concrete all along the footings of the wall so I can no longer plant anything in the ground BUT I do have five pots that I can use.

They can't be massive pots as our path (which I don't have the money to relocate) is just 22cm away from the wall!

Ideas please! I'd also thought about some climbers, like an evergreen jasmine, but not sure if they would be happy in 22cm wide pots :-)

Morrison’s are very good for cheap plants. They have some lovely clematis for £1.70 per plant in 9 cm pots.You have enough soil along that edge to plant some clematis to climb up the trellis. Clear back the shingle and dig a hole about 3 sizes bigger than the plant pot( so around diner plate sized. Stick the clematis in the middle and file around it with some decent compost. Take the end of the plant and place it where you want it to climb up the trellis. If it doesn’t quite reach yet use a bit of garden twine to loosely tie to the end of the plant and then attach the other end to the trellis and the plant will grow up the twine to the trellis. You could get a mix of spring and summer flowering to extend the flowering season. Or you could do the same with a Passion flower vine, Morrison’s nhs have them at the same price as the clematis. Feed them with potash in spring and then throw summer feed every couple of weeks either with a liquid feed when watering or sprinkle some blood fish and bone around them. If you have a lot of foxes about avoid the blood fish and bone and just go for a liquid feed.

Your trellis is lovely but I would be careful of planting things like honeysuckle, passion fruit and clematis. They will go through the trellis and, if your neighbours don’t like them they will be a nuisance. Especially honeysuckle which can be rampant. I would go for shrubs like philadelphus, forsythia, lilac that you can keep to your own side.

My MiLs neighbours got so annoyed at the plants growing through the trellis, that they sprayed them with Jeyses Fluid. They said it was an accident.

Just to second the recommendation for Morrison's, I've bought a number of small clematis plants from them, nurtured them through a couple of seasons and they are growing vigorously now. Also bargains to be had from eBay by post! I find Lidl plants do well too.

However I think you could have bigger pots overlapping onto the path, so a row of ornamental trees would be my choice.

Watching with interest.

Thanks for further suggestions everyone.

florentina1 - the neighbours will love the flowers, I've spoken to the lady already. Her words 'we'll benefit from them too'. And I've already said I'll do any pruning /maintenance etc on their side as well that needs doing. I do love the idea of the philadelphus etc.

Dontsweatthelittlestuff I can't dig out any soil I'm afraid as the builders poured deep concrete all along both sides of the wall, hence the pots.

mustdrinkwaternotwine Good point about the pots, and the clematis, thank you.

I'm up early to start marking for most of today but I'll try to get started on at least preserving the trellis.

I'll report back once I've been to B&Q/Morrisons, we also have an amazing garden centre that grows all its own plants so is considerably cheaper than elsewhere! If I can't decide, I might just put pots of runner beans and sweet peas along it for this summer!