Allotments 4 All

We are good friends with our neighbours, but we both like privacy. For historical reasons, there is a 6' wooden trellis between our gardens - it used to be covered with clematis but that suddenly died and had to be cleared away, so the trellis is suddenly very bare. They are on the south side of the trellis, we are on the north.

So I am looking for evergreen plants that bush up nicely and will not suffer when her plants keep the sun off them. There are some plants I don't like such as Garrya, Berberis, Mahonia, sadly. I already have a very young bay tree and Fatsia and I am thinking of a Camellia.

Has anyone any further ideas?

PS Forgot to say no conifers.....

You could train fruit trees all along your  border, may be your neighbour would like to do it as well plenty of summer cover plenty of fruit. and in the winter lots of colour and shapes and the birds will loveyou ;D

Thanks, but fruit trees don't seem to be evergreen, unless I've missed something.

Are there any good thick evergreens with edible berries? I'd certainly like something useful as well as reasonably attractive and able to grow in fairly heavy shade.

Yes, she does grow some fruit on the south facing side (very successful peaches), but what disconcerts us at the moment is the bareness of this long stretch of trellis in winter. We have a certain amount of grapevine, honeysuckle, wisteria growing along it, but they are bare and twiggy at the moment.

I have come up with Sarcococca confusa and Euonymus japonicus 'Silver King' so far, but I think they are rather small and slow growing.....does anyone grow them?

Have you considered akebia quinata? It's beautiful, evergreen in all but the most foul winters, has flowers, fruit (not edible afaik) and scent.
http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/akebia-quinata-/classid.225/

My one is quite happy in a shady corner and doesn't mind if I chop it back hard.

Thanks, that is joining my list. I hadn't thought of it. In fact my neighbour grows it along another of our common boundaries (a solid one, but it pokes through), so I know it grows OK here.... I had thought of it as a delicate hothouse plant.

Monkey Puzzle     ;D   sorry ...I,m being naughty !  Lol Debs

Hi Artichoke, I have a one year old Sarcoccoca. It hasn't grown much (no surprise as its still very young)  I'm still waiting for the flowers to open.

I would say its probably not the best plant for your fence if you want to cover it....but if you need to cover a bare bottom  :o.......of another plant  ;D

Quote from: artichoke on January 08, 2012, 08:48:08


Are there any good thick evergreens with edible berries? I'd certainly like something useful as well as reasonably attractive and able to grow in fairly heavy shade.

Arbutus unedo. Mine grows in a sort of shady area. (under another tree). You can make jam and wine from the fruits

portuguese laurel -flowers in full shade! there are various named cultivars but the species grows into BIG bushes but can also be cut quite hard. I keep ours at seven feet and have wrens nesting in them.
Osmanthus is lovely but slow growing and is in flower now - very sweetly scented -many species and cultivars again with different leaf shapes...
Acuba will also tolerate heavy shade but not dripping from overhanging trees. The variegated forms grow more slowly but can brighten up dark places and Viburnum tinus tends to get on anywhere and can be difficult to dig out again!
With all evergreens, plant in the spring when the soil is warming up and the cold winds less damaging and then water regularly until established -because they have all these leaves all the time they are always losing water...but definately not waterlogged......you know, the perfect 'humus rich,moisture retaining but well drained' bit - helps to prevent soil-borne diseases.....
sorry that was a bit long..