Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[MumsyII]

Confession: I'm pages and pages behind! But I'm trying to catch up. I know I'm probably totally off subject right now, but sent these photos to Mumsy in PM and she asked me to go ahead and post them here. So...I apologize for jumping right in to break up a flow

I have lots of interior gardening items I want to do, but this crazy fence-line is something I want to get some privacy on. We used to be in the country...they have now widened the highway and city is moving out. They put a sidewalk in last year and we just put up the 6 ft. high chain link fence (black).

I want something that will give privacy in WINTER as well as summer. I'm hoping to find something that keeps foliage but doesn't have huge thorns. Probably asking too much.

Most of the spruces here die from the bottom up so that's probably not a good option even though I do like spruces. (They do make a good privacy and can be a good backdrop for some pretty items in front if you can keep them healthy.) In the first photo you can see spruces across the street that they had to trim up due, likely to salt spray from the snow plows during the winter.


Photos: From inside out.



From outside in.



Another view from outside in.



Any thoughts would be appreciated!


Thanks so much...and LOVE the thread

How does evergreen clematis do in your climate? It's a choice vine. Intensely fragrant white blooms in early Spring.

Ivy is a standard go to for chain link fence coverage here. With this big of an expanse of fence, you could alternate the regular dark green ivy with a gorgeous yellow variegated large leaf one. And then go to a small tiny leaf ivy. You could do a thick mixed hedge using a mix of deciduous and evergreen shrubs. Holly, lilac, forsythia, laurel, etc. In three years time the hedge would be so thick with branches, the eyes would have a hard time seeing through the tangle. You can add any hardy shrub into a hedge. You can add evergreen privet, and small trees. I'm going to give it more thought. Stay tuned.

 

[MumsyII]

Addendum: I keep wondering if there are any fruiting bushes that stay thick enough to be a good privacy in the winter.

Yes! Quince! and it comes in a variety of beautiful colors. I forgot all about Quince! Quince jelly is delicious!

 

[midnightroo]

Leah, wow that road is close! Roads are a mixed blessing. Great to get you for place to place, but such an issue when so close to houses like that. I hope it quiets down at night.

 

[midnightroo]

Ugh, I am tired and hitting the wrong button. This is the plant that I think looks like Justine's, but I don't know the name of it either. Green non woody stems with yellow flowers that spread.

I don't think it is a goose neck unless the flowers are different for different colors. Same neighbor gave me some while goose neck that I wish I had never taken. Pretty invasive here.

 

[armorfirelady]

Leah I think climbing roses would be pretty. They grow very fast (or at least mine do. I intertwine them in my porch railing) but they won't give much privacy in the winter.

I got Burberry bushes today, $5 a gallon bucket . They might work as a barrier that works during the winter. They are a pretty red variegated leaf. You could plant the roses with them and they would climb over the bushes and thru the holes of the fence.

Edited to add the Burberry bushes do have little thorns but so do roses .

 

[MumsyII]

My children have not consented to using their real names online. I can hardly blame them. Their mum shares a lot.

However...You may have noticed I don't share a lot about my son. He would be mortified to know I even mention him in the same breath about anything to do with gardening.

I take a lot of blame for that. And Queenie should to. As the only male at home during the day surrounded by estrogen, he didn't have a chance. Big sister was dressing him up and including him in the tea parties from the time he could toddle. When he was older he was helping dad prune, water, mow grass, lift heavy rocks, and haul wheel barrows of dirt. It's no wonder when he left home at nineteen he never gardened again. After five years in his home he just did put a lawn in.

When Shadow was just talking, she couldn't pronounce his name so she referred to her big brother as 'That boy". It stuck for many years.

I don't have many pictures of my son in the garden. This one is old.


That Boy helping mum water the nursery plants in 1991.

 

[midnightroo]

Darn it did it again!

Above is some cleome in our garden. They attract pollinators and hummingbird moths at dusk. They spread by seed readily here and have thorns.

This photo is a spot that needs work badly. This particular area gets sun and shady since it is partially covered by a red maple. There is a lilac in the area and a evergreen bush of some variety that was huge when we moved in. My husband cut it down and it is starting to grow back.

Does anyone have any Osage orange? I am curious about it. I have heard it is a good hedge that fruits and has thorns, but have also heard that it spreads a lot. I am wondering if I could do a hedge of the Osage, with the Hawthorne, and forsythia around my property line. I don't need a privacy, just something that keeps the chickens in and perhaps the roaming fox, deer and groundhog.

 

[midnightroo]

Mumsy, your poor son! He will come round, it is in his blood.

 

[armorfirelady]

Midnight Roo I love the cleome. That MIT be something I can use back where my old compost pile was. I don't mind spreading plants. Besides it at the back property line. It can grow all it wants much prettier than looking at the side of a house

 

[MumsyII]

Ugh, I am tired and hitting the wrong button. This is the plant that I think looks like Justine's, but I don't know the name of it either. Green non woody stems with yellow flowers that spread.

I don't think it is a goose neck unless the flowers are different for different colors. Same neighbor gave me some while goose neck that I wish I had never taken. Pretty invasive here.

Yes. One of my first hunches was Gooseneck loosestrife. It comes in yellow and white. Someone gave me a bucket of it too. I fought it for years and finally dug it all out and burned it. Even a small piece in the compost pile would spread it. This is a good plant for soil erosion or wild areas. It will however eventually smother and kill any plant it overtakes in a flower bed. A beautiful plant in it's own right but be very careful if you plant this in your garden. Right plant for the right place. Anything growing in the wrong place is a weed. Words I live by.