Choosing Vines For Vertical Garden Decoration

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Vine selection

Schisandra chinensis

Observations show that today a fairly large part of the sites is devoid of attractiveness and is not well suited for a good rest.

However, it is often already possible to find garden plots, which intelligently combine a garden, a vegetable garden and flower beds with vertical landscaping zones, which, with the help of vines, not only give the site a comfortable look, but also increase the planting area, protecting the site from dust and noise.

Gardener's guide

Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

If you are improving the landscape of your site and have decided to actively use vertical gardening at the same time, then, I know from my own experience that first of all, you should decide which type of vines suits you best, and then choose a suitable place for planting them.

In the case when the purpose of landscaping is not only to give the site beauty, but also to obtain valuable fruits from the vines, then preference, of course, should be given to such vines as actinidia, lemongrass and grapes. At the same time, the best of the actinidia is the actinidia kolomikta, which is quite frost-resistant and gives annual harvests of the most valuable berries, reminiscent of strawberries in taste and smell.

The value of the berries of the Chinese magnolia vine, which yields yields in a year, as well as the Amur grape, which is distinguished by its unpretentiousness and high resistance to the climate of our zone, is also well known. If the task of vertical gardening is the need to decorate unsightly areas of a site or old walls of a house and outbuildings, then it is quite possible to get by with ordinary hops growing in our forests, petiolate hydrangea, maiden grapes or woodworm, and the last two vines are very good until late autumn.

If, when landscaping a site, you first of all need beauty, then clematis, climbing roses, as well as curly flowers - sweet peas, morning glory, nasturtium, decorative beans and curly pumpkin should be considered the best vines here.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Planting vines

Maiden grapes

For a good survival rate of seedlings and their normal growth and development, it is equally important to choose a place for planting vines. From my own experience, I can say that even clematis and curly flowers, which are considered lovers of sunlight, often turn away from it and direct their growth towards the darkened side.

The rest of the above-mentioned vines, which came to us from the forest, are quite shade-tolerant, and they can be placed even under trees, but not under fruit trees, since, being predators, they are capable of very noticeably oppressing any plants entwined with them. A tree-nose plier is generally unacceptable under trees, especially under conifers, since it is capable of strangling them mercilessly, as its very name speaks volumes about.

Lianas can be placed against any walls from the west, east and northwest, and hops can even be placed from the north of buildings. And only clematis and curly flowers are best placed from the south of the buildings. As for the soil, for vines, it must be alkaline or neutral. And only hops tolerate slightly acidic soil.

Having chosen the most suitable vines and a place for them, in April, when the soil thaws, planting holes should be prepared. At the same time, in the most typical cases of planting vines - near the walls of houses and outbuildings, near fences, pergolas, awnings or trellises - the pit is made with a slight slope from the base of these structures, and its walls and the bottom of the pit are coated with oily clay.

After that, drainage is arranged at the bottom of the pit to a level of about 20-25 cm, which can be used as crushed stone, pebbles, broken stone, as well as various bottles and cans that improve air access to the roots of vines. On top of the drainage, a layer of soil is poured, containing at least 50% humus or compost, up to 0.5 buckets of ash and a complex mineral fertilizer mixed with the soil removed from the pit.

At the same time, at a height equal to slightly more than half the height of the pit, an annular drainage belt about 10 cm thick is made, on which a piece of pipe or hose is installed at the wall of the pit, which subsequently serves for watering and feeding the plant. Due to this, the aqueous solution, passing through the belt of the drainage ring and spreading, evenly flows to the roots of the vines, supplying them well with moisture and nutrients.

When planting seedlings of lianas in a place prepared for them, it is very important to foresee the most suitable support in advance in order to exclude trauma to the roots during the survival and growth of the plant. In this case, it is not at all necessary to get carried away with complex supports, often recommended in the literature, but to do with the simplest ones, which do not require much labor and funds. For most vines (actinidia, grapes, hops, woodworm, etc.), it is usually enough to either run them on the wall of buildings, stuffing wooden slats on it or fixing a wire frame, or make a support wall from pipes, battens and wire.

Lemongrass can also be formed simply in the form of a bush by driving a 1-1.5 m high stake into the ground, around which the vine will hang around. For clematis, climbing roses and sweet peas, the simplest wood supports are quite suitable, which make it easy to remove these flowers from them in the fall and cover them for the winter. For vines such as petiolate hydrangea and maiden grapes, when planted near the wall of a house, farm buildings, terraces or pergolas, specialized supports are not required at all, since they hook very well to rough surfaces made of wood, brick and plaster using the existing petioles and tendrils.

Schemes for fixing vines on the wall frame (A), (B) to the support wall

(C, D, D) and on separate supports:

1 - wall;

2 - slats;

3 - pipes;

4 - bars;

5 - wire or twine garter;

6 - slats, bars or pipes;

7 - twine;

8 - pegs.

When planting lianas seedlings, it is also very important to ensure a certain burial of them in the soil and shelter of the root system. Experience shows that it is better to plant grapes and lemongrass at the level of the root collar with the soil surface, and actinidia, hops and clematis should be buried in the soil, respectively, by 2-3 cm, 4-5 cm and 6-8 cm. In this case, immediately after planting the soil under the vines must either be sown with low-growing plants or flowers, or well mulched with humus, compost or rotted sawdust. As a vegetation cover, as the experience of some gardeners shows, the shoots bent and Veronica, which provide a creeping soil cover, are well suited.

Common hops

In conclusion, I want to state that the fears of some gardeners that the presence of vines in the garden, especially near the walls, leads to the appearance of dampness, has not been confirmed by practice. On the contrary, the leaves of the vines, overlapping each other like tiles, protect the walls from rain well, and the root system even takes moisture from the foundations.

Moreover, as scientists have found, in addition to giving additional attractiveness to the site, vines also serve as an excellent thermostat of the microclimate, and also reduce the thermal radiation of buildings without interfering with sunlight. Their foliage also enriches the air entering the premises of the house with oxygen.

I think that, taking into account all of the above, it can be confidently asserted that the vines, decorating the garden, make the rest in it comfortable. You can purchase seedlings of the species of lianas you have chosen by visiting our table of plant nurseries with a variety of planting material presented in it.