Garden Tips & Resources

Archive for the ‘Vines’ Category

Growing vines is a wonderful way to hide a problem area of your home. If you have an ugly chain link fence for instance, or a shed that just doesn’t look as if it fits in your yard well, planting climbing vines can make either one look much more attractive and inviting.

Vines can also help provide shade, cooler temperatures for your home, and reduce wind or dust blowing around your home too. They can also help reduce noise from close neighbors or a busy street, and they can help give you much more privacy too.

Many vines produce beautiful flowers, and some produce fruit too, so you can have healthy fresh food whenever you want, as well as beauty, privacy, and all the other benefits that come from growing vines too.

One of the most important aspects of growing any kind of vines though, is to be sure they have a strong enough supports to climb on. Some vines grow very agressively, and they can actually damage structures and become quite dangerous as they mature, if they’re not properly supported.

Full grown vines can also be quite heavy, depending on the type of vine you’re growing. Some will climb as high as twenty feet or more while others will climb just six feet or so. The larger the vine climbs of course, the heavier it will be. If the vine also bears fruit, the weight will be even more.

Some of the best structures to let vines climb on are solid wood arbors or pergolas. Any solidly built structure will usually work well though, such as a storage shed, carport, or part of your home. Be aware of what type of vine you allow to climb along the walls of your home though, because some can completely destroy the structure over time.

Some types of vines you might want to try growing include grape vines, passionfruit vines, and rose vines. There are also Morning Glory vines and wisteria, which are both favorites across the country. Another popular vine is honeysuckle, because it grows quickly and puts out a wonderful sweet scent too.

If you love growing roses, you might try planting some climbing rose vines too. Most grow quite quickly and will attach themselves to a structure fairly easily too. Other types of vines which are wonderful to grow include clematis, diplodenia, black-eyed susan, bougainvillea, and jasmine.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Have you ever seen a truely wonderful indoor plant vine, which just seems to trail along a table, over the side of a shelf, or climbing up a support as if it weren’t real? Vines are very popular indoor house plants because they are so easy to grow, and they grow quite quickly too. And it’s just these same easy, fast growing tendencies which make vines ideal for creative plant decorating.

1. Vines around Windows. Have you ever considered using your houseplant vines to decorate your windows instead of using curtains or blinds? The idea is simple, and it shouldn’t take too long to achieve the effect you’re looking for. In general, you’ll want to grow vines alongside, and/or between your windows, then train them to climb up the sides onto the curtain rods hanging above.

You may need to put small strings or other climbing material along the sides and frames of your windows so the plants will have something to grab on to as they’re growing, and once they reach the curtain rods themselves, they should have no problems wrapping around those. In time, you may even get vines trailing down both around and in front of your windows, making the inside of your home look like a garden oasis.

2. Vines in Doorways. The same concept can be applied to various doorways in your home. This works best when you grow vines around doorways which have wide openings, and no actual doors which open or close. Put garden containers on the floor next to the doorway, or on shelves either just inside the doorway if there’s enough room, or outside the doorway. Then run some kind of string or small trellis material up the inside of your doorway for the vines to climb on. Eventually the vines will climb up the inside of the doorway, and across the top too, creating a unique and beautiful passthrough in your home.

3. Vines around the Fireplace. One more elegant idea which may be less intrusive, is to train your indoor plant vines to grow around a fireplace. This can be done by simply sitting pots and containers onto the fireplace mantel, then letting the trailing vines drape along the sides. Alternatively you can put the pots onto shelves that sit beside the fireplace, and provide them with string or small trellis material that will allow them to climb up along the sides of your fireplace.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!