How best to grow a woody climber along a fence.

Hi everyone.

I want to plant Star Jasmine along a couple of fences and thinking about how best to do this. Would installing a sturdy wire support framework be OK or would a trellis be a better option?

Many thanks,

Ed

 

Question One, are they your fences?

 

Yes they are.

 

Question two are they new and sturdy or will they need “seeing to” in a few years’ time?

 

They are 5 years old. Pretty sturdy at the moment. Would like to protect the fence as much as possible though.

 

Star jasmine is a large, bushy, twiggy, unwieldy plant that isn’t very good at supporting itself and has, in my garden at least, an annoying habit of dying back in bits. It has no tendrils or other form of self support so you are going to have to tie it in at frequent intervals to stop it from flopping all over the place. You also need to think about how you are going to gain access to the fence when it needs painting/repairing etc. So a large metal frame with strong horizontal wires set away from the fence itself would seem to be the way to go.

 

I grow them on a wall with strong wire stretched at 30cm spacing. They do need a bit of encouragement to twine and a bit of tying in, but sooo worth it to have an evergreen, flowering climber that looks good in winter too

 

I think I will give this a go.

 

Row of lights?

 

Oh, I didn't know what you were getting at here.

 

Do you have a problem with that? If they're visible from your side and the light disturbs you, you could maybe ask them to move them lower down, but it doesn't really seem worth a falling-out over. It's not likely to damage the fence (assuming they are modern fairy lights that weigh hardly anything).

 

If it is your fence you can tell them to take the lights off the fence and anything else they have attached to your fence on their side. It might start a fence war (I have experience off this) but you would be entitled to do this.