attaching plants to fences with concrete godfathers

I am ahead of my self here as I have no plants to attach yet but was thinking of what to do.

The fence panels are quite flimsy and slot in between concrete posts. if i want to grow clematis for example and want them to grow up fence i was thinking the best way to do it. If i put vine eyes into fence panel i reckon the thing would just disintegrate. so i was thinking would it work if i put a vine eye into one godfather and then the next one 6 foot away and use tension wire. or failing this i was thinking of ramming a wooden stake in next to each panel and have a sort of colonade? what do you think peeps?

 

That's a job I have to do as well, I got some 3" vine eyes over Christmas to fit in the holiday,
It is ok to drill in to concrete fence post, just rawlplug the hole and screw in the vine eye

 

oh great i will put that on my never ending list then!!!

 

I'm just waiting for it to stop raining then I can fit my vine eyes

 

that'll be about June then. LOL

 

I, ll photo mine later then you can see how I attached vine eyes

 

Hi Flower Power and Ian
I screwed 20mm batons to each side of the fence . I fitted 65mm zinc plated vine eyes every 30cm (45mm size may have been better ). You must use exactly the right length of woodscrew . As my fence boards are 10mm thick , then I needed 30mm screws so they would not pop through on the other side. I stretched as tight as possible by hand 2mm plastic coated garden wire , with the vine eyes at " 3 o clock " , when I turned the eyes to "6 o clock this tensioned the wire - see photos.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/screw-eye-10ga-x-45mm-pack-of-10/16205


Another method is willow concertina panelling , attached with cable clips .

Plastic mesh , again attached with cable clips . Its best to screw the cable clips in as hammering nails into a wobbly fence is hard work !

 

@HarryS

Nice idea with the wooden batons on either side, certainly beats drilling into the concrete posts as they probably have re-bar in them and hitting one with the drill is no fun.

 

Only problem I can see is if you have to change your fence panel, thats why I screwed mine in to the concrete.
A red rawlplug is only 30mm long so you have no chance of hitting a rebar as a average fence posts are 100mm, and the rebars are in the 4 corners

 

@Ian Taylor

True, but since getting one of these, I have become totally reliant on it and don't drill a hole without checking first.
It detects, rebar, wiring and metal pipes, it's a fantastic contraption and probably worth it even for the occasional diy.
Most power tool manufacturers seem to have several models of these.

 

I have a Black and Decker one which is also a laser level . I use it to detect if there are any cables in the area. Also use is to find joists and studs , I dont know how it detects that wood is there

 

It's a mystery to me too.

 

Haa, makes sense now:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/question271.htm

Very clever, it uses capacitance and since the joists and studs will be of a different dielectric constant. it's able to detect the change.

also here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stud_finder

 

thanks for the info. erm.......whats rebar

 

rebar = reinforcing bar, metal bars embedded in the concrete to give it more structural strength.

Metal bars or a mesh of them are first made up, placed in a mold (if applicable) then the concrete is poured over the metal bars and allowed to set.
This gives added strength the the final product.
Below is an example of a concrete counter with the rectangle in the middle being the "void" for the basin.
If rebar was not added, the counter by itself would not have much strength and land up cracking and falling apart.