Help

Could some1 tell me what to plant in the bed next to my house, climbers could climb the house wall. New to this gardening malarkie by the way

 

Hi Pookie, which way is the wall facing, does it get lots of sun, what size is the bed?

 

Some climbers like Ivy stick by themselves, but a lot of climbers such as Clematis and Wisteria stick by wrapping tendrils around a support, such as a trellis. You would have to supply a support for these.

Ivy is OK - I have it on the front of my house. But you have to watch it. It can get into the fabric of the house through gaps under windows etc and do damage. You must keep on top of it.

The climbers needing support are more friendly.

 

Liz

The wall is north east facing the bed is about a foot wide and 3 foot long again, very estimated. at the moment there are some rather dead looking primroses in it which I hate. Thought about making is a rockary, would that work as in Scotland Heathers are very easy to get hold of.

 

Hi again, PeterS is right in that most climbers will need some support. As he says Ivy would manage without, and there are many pretty varieties . Other climbers which should be OK there with support are Hydrangea and Wisteria, both of which can grow very large, some honeysuckles [ there is one very pretty yellow leaved one, lonicera giraldii, which would be ok on your wall] and Akebia quinata maroon chocolate scented flowers, semi evergreen. The ivy is the only one of these which would be reliably evergreen, though.You could try an ivy with a summer flowering climber over it.
At the base, a rockery with heathers sounds great, perhaps with some little conifers? Is your soil sufficiently acid for heathers? [See if your neighbours have any if you don't know]. For the rockery, don't just dump the rocks on top of the soil. Dig out the base and put in some gravel for drainage, and position larger rocks in this before infilling with some ericacious compost .
Hope some of this will help.

 

Thanks for the advice, honeysuckle is my favorite flower, I will look up this variety, it sounds lovely. some of my neighbours have some fab rockeries, with conifers in it with some little heathers. what other plants can I put in my rockerie?

 

Some gentians, soldanella, corydalis, campanula [all these are blue], cyclamen and other spring bulbs, saxifragia, vaccinium [cranberry]. There are also annuals such as Aquilegia which are easy to grow or buy and come in loads of colours and sizes
See if there's a local nursery selling rockplants, and have alook every so often for what's in flower. There isn't a great deal of space!