Concrete garden wall ideas

[sophi1995]

Please give me some ideas on how I can add some life and colour to this garden wall! Are climbers growing out of pots feasible at all?

It's in my South facing front driveway but the wall itself is facing East. Located in South West Ireland so gets plenty rain.

Can you dig out a border? You'd need to get a professional in. Then you could plant a variety of plants of different shapes and sizes in front of the wall and climbers up it. Is it concrete? You could power wash or paint it to make it more neutral. Pots require quite a lot of attention so only get them if you're prepared to water your plants every day and feed them regularly. You could paint the wall a dark green and then have a raised bed in front of it filled with plants.

Who owns the side with the trees? Climber like their feet in the ground ideally so if you could plant something that side and train it over that would be great - ivy would be perfect or a climbing hydrangea as neither of those need training - they find their own way up a wall.

If not....then I'd put in raised beds and put in star jasmine (Trachelospermum Jasminoides) as that copes with being in a container. You will have to water it though - the larger the container the less watering.

The best thing to do would be to break up the tarmac and put in beds, then you could put in almost anything.

@BigDahliaFan Who owns the side with the trees?

It's a big wooded area owned by the council, it expands out into a large woods behind the house but the part you see in the photo is the long pathway into it. Ha, you have me almost tempted to sneakily go and plant some ivy there now but I'd best not interfere with the local woodland! Since you mentioned it though I've noticed there is parts of the wall at the back of the house that does have ivy creeping over, I'll add a photo, even a small amount of greenery really does help to soften it!

I'll look into Star Jasmine. Breaking up the tarmac might the way to go although I was hoping to get away with an easier solution. We're a bit time poor at the moment with a baby and a toddler and a new (to us) house! Probably best to start with what's best long term though even if it delays the project until next summer.

I was thinking about painting the wall but it's huge and pebble dashed so will be a nightmare to paint. Not so bad as a once off but I'm worried it'll be one of those things that will need to be topped up every single year if I do it once!

It's not for everyone but I encourage moss and mind your own business on mine which alongside some ivy would look rather lush I think.. plus good bug habitat etc.. easy care too!

You could commission a graffiti artist to paint a mural. There’s a guy near us that does amazing detailed work. It really is proper outdoor art, not just tagging.

How about honeysuckle for cover? It’s an absolute brute when it gets going, so would only need a small foothold in the ground and would spread fast, plus beautiful when it flowers.

Like @JustPleachy I was going to recommend honeysuckle. There's one called Honeysuckle Halls Prolific which grows to 8m and will grow on an east facing wall. You could put trellis along the wall and train your honesuckle along it. You'd need big pots and to feed and water well.