Would you ever plant a russian vine ?

[WorzselMummage]

We have a 6ft tall 40ft long trellis type fence betteen us an our neighbour and no chance of us being able to replace it for about 150 years.

Our neighbour's lovely but i do worry about him spying on my builders bum when I am weeding etc and i'm wary of letting the kids out in the nude etc.

I know russian vines are a bugger to get rid of but I cant think of anything else which would do the job quickly.

Would you do it?

If not ( which is probably all for you ) what would you recommend ?

I wonder something rather different, which is whether people confuse Russian vine with Boston ivy. Russian vine will keep resprouting from a stump and even a piece of root that is left in the ground - if you look online, there are people struggling after having a go at it with stump killer! And when it gets going, boy does it go everywhere.

Our russian vine had either been planted in several places or it really is sprouting up with runners. Identifiable from the white flowers.

The problem for me is the sheer size and weight of it, everything under it gets crushed and smothered, when we got rid of it it really was a mass of tough vines, not really wood so it didn't have the stability that a hedge does. I learnt that when my son jumped on a section and crushed it!

Gosh yeah, just googled. Well, personally we never had trouble with ours and I loved it. Bear in mind I moved a couple of years ago so no idea what it looks like now

No. It needed trimming so often in summer, it became another constant chore like mowing the lawn, and was very hard to get rid of when we decided we had had enough. Better to be a little bit more patient and get a lovely clematis which will make you extremely happy when it flowers and only need pruning once a year.

Bog standard honeysuckle.

My bare fence (see pic) had about 14 small bits with roots on planted at its feet four years ago. By the end of the second summer I felt a lot less overlooked. It is growing in a very exposed position in N. Italy., so hot humid summers and fecking freezing, snowy winters. Which can be an issue cos you have to get a broom and beat the snow piles off the top of the honeysuckle if you don't want the fence to groan under the combined weight.

You do have to stay on top of it. It will lose some leaves in a hard winter and become a bit more see through. Not that I care, I only dash from house to wood pile in the winter. By and large it give good coverage for privacy, allows wind to travel through it, smells nice at times and even I can't kill it. Plus it was free. A mate that had a bit of it yanked up the rooty bits from hers for me.

We do have to attack it once or twice a year if we don't want it invading the lillac near the house, or getting too top heavy. So it's not totally plant and forget.

Never mind the vine, I am envious of your amazing log pile!

I also want a log pile like that!!
We had a plum tree taken down recently and I had them cut the trunk up into logs to dry out, the neighbour asked for the branches for her own fire as she struggles to always afford logs, I trimmed them down for her removing leaves/fruit etc. I almost sobbed Wednesday evening when I found out my super helpful son took her both branches AND logs.
I didn't have the heart to ask for it back.

Oh no clark!! What a shame. On the upside, it sounds like you have the loveliest DS. That has to be a consolation!

There is something personal about burning your own wood, isn't there? I've been seasoning my apple tree wood for nearly 2 years now... really looking forward to burning it this winter!

Well there you are op, MN have voted and its unanimous. Forget Russian vine. Get yourself a log pile to hide that fence :)

If you like the (too tiny, DH got stingy this year) outside log pile, you'd love the (three times the size) one in the portico.

I look at it and think of all the splinters and the millions of mosquito bites I got when stacking it.

I couldn't disagree more about Russian Vine - I think it's great and has covered up our back fence in no time at all. Granted though it's a fence that is predominantly surrounded by concrete so not much risk of propagation. The only down side is that it looses it's foliage in winter.

Erm it's knotweed family can't it be described as illegal?

You are planting a relative of Japanese knotweed... don't do it. Clematis montana, honeysuckle, some dwarf bamboos, chinese virginia creeper. There are a lot of good options!

You could double-plant some clematis and a jasmine?
If you get the right one it would extend the flowering season considerably.
You'd need to look at when you could cut both back, though.
By the way, I'm with the others on Russian vine. Once planted, twice regretted.

I've used this stuff before against a trellis fence:

here

Great price and saved my sanity for a year or two until my climbers filled out. I bought the 1.5m height (they also sell 1.2m) and wired it from the top + pinned it in the middle on a 6ft fence. This left a gap at the bottom but that was fine as it stopped it touching the soil and rotting and my shrubs and climbers filled out quite quickly.

Zombie thread, I wonder if the OP has made their decision yet?

We have a hydrangea petiolaris in a similar situation.... it looks lovely and doesn't spread anywhere unwanted.
We also have a Virginia creeper which is gorgeous in the autumn but straggly at the moment in a half shade half sun area and various montanas
Clematis need deep cool dark roots but once established( I've killed a few) are trouble free and rewarding

I am the OP and we decided against it and have since moved house and have inherited a love Russia Vine that I am trying my absolute damnedest to kill off!

7 years after the OP my recommendation would be DON'T DO IT!

Just to add, don't grow Virginia creeper unless you want to constantly fight with it - it's very rampant.

Haha OP what a twist to your tale!
Good luck with the murdering!