Re: Tall, thin screen -for shade
At 07:57 PM 5/11/00 -0700, Richard Starkeson wrote:
>It is not all solid wall, and the wood it too rotten to support paint. It
>really is the ugliest wall once could find. It is in its lower half, a
>covered walkway to a cottage in the back of the property, and the upper
>half is (sort of) supporting an illegally constructed closed-in porch off
>an apartment. A large Magnolia grandiflora (which reaches above to the
>sunlight) partialy obscures about 15 feet of its length, and there is
>already a clump of bamboo (about 15 feet in height) behind the
>magnolia. Passiflora has been tried, but it is a never-ending job of
>clearing it out of the Magnolia. Interestingly, the bamboo, now getting
>lots of water, has sent out some shoots at about 10 feet from the clump;
>those growing right against the wall are being encouraged. May not be a
>clumper after all, but then its runners are few.
Hi Richard -
I think Trevor Nottle's suggestion to work 'with' the wall's character is a
good one, as strange as it may seem. Such a situation is not uncommon in
older urban area such as is found in San Francisco & Oakland. If you can
identify some portion or element of the wall that can be integrated into
the final effect (as well as what MUST be hidden at all costs), this will
help you create the best solution. Having been trained in the arts, my own
eye would immediately pick out such things, but I realize it is not always
how everyone sees things. Since you will not likely be successful in
completely hiding this wall, making its occasional appearance work with
what you do will yield the best results.
There are a variety of shade tolerant vines that can be chosen, but it
sound like support might be a problem if this wall is truly crumbling
away. A solution I designed for a similar problem was a free-standing open
support, about 1-2ft from a wall. It consisted of redwood beams with inset
panels of concrete reinforcing wire, a cheap, readily available wire grid
with openings approximately 8-10in square. The wire ends were merely
inserted into tiny holes drilled into the redwood. These beams were
self-supporting, set into concrete footings (as you would a fence). This
created a very open-work fence IN FRONT of the offending wall.
Behind this fence was planted a hybrid of the Vine Abutilon, Abutilon
megapotamicum, which is really a shrub that sends out long, lax branches
that like to support themselves on their neighbors. The wall behind and
the new support in front helped this shrub to reach a height of 15ft in
this very shaded garden, and sprays of the handsome, bell-shaped flowered
and the handsome, long lobed leaves draped through the front of the
support. There are various hybrids of this shrub these days, but many of
them do not 'vine' as much as the species. It would be best to try and
make sure that the form you choose will grow to this size and 'vine' in
this manner. Various other lax shrubs might also be use.
Hope this gives you some ideas. Is this your own garden or that of a friend?
Regards,
Sean O.
Sean A. O'Hara sean.ohara@groupmail.com
h o r t u l u s a p t u s 710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose' Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
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