Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara)
Dear Readers, our next door neighbours are putting in a new fence, which will be fence panels about six feet high. They have agreed to leave some gaps in/underneath the fence for hedgehogs/frogs etc which is great, though I will miss chatting to them over the much lower fence that we currently have. Still, no judgement here! They are lovely neighbours, and everyone does what they think is best with regards to privacy/light etc.
It does now present me with an opportunity – another vertical surface to use for wildlife! It is west-facing, although parts of it will be in shadow from trees and the hedge. So, I’m touting around for suggestions – I have a few thoughts myself, but as usual I’m throwing myself on the Bug Woman hive mind for your experiences.
First up, I want to reinstitute some bittersweet – it planted itself a few years ago, and then died. But a few months back, I found that some berries had germinated in a bucket (go figure) and so I’d like to plant it again. It’s such fun to hear the bumblebees buzz-pollinating, and to see the purple flowers and red/green berries.
Then, I’m thinking dog rose, another splendid plant for pollinators, plus who knows who will appreciate its thorny recesses once it gets going?
Does anyone have any experience with traveller’s joy, /old man’s beard, our only native clematis?
Traveller’s Joy/Old Man’s Beard (Clematis vitalba)
I already have ivy in the garden, but I guess this would be another wildlife-friendly choice, particularly in the darker areas….
Ivy bees on ivy
Anyhow, the plants don’t have to be native, provided that they have wildlife value – increasingly I’m thinking that our native plants are going to come under increasing stress with climate change, and some botanists are suggesting that we plant things that are ‘adjacent’ to our current plants – some insects are already adapting to red birch as well as silver birch, for example, and something that can survive and that produces nectar or pollen is going to be a better choice than something that can no longer survive. Tricky questions for sure, and no absolute answers, but this is a topic for a future blog. Anyhow, over to you readers!
Old Man’s Beard is very unpopular in New Zealand!
https://blog.forestandbird.org.nz/clipping-the-beard-removing-old-mans-beard-from-your-garden/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0MXP44u4iQMVSaVmAh3QShqFEAAYASAAEgIXZPD_BwE
https://www.orc.govt.nz/environment/biosecurity-and-pests/plant-pests/old-mans-beard/
Like so many plants, it can be a real thug in an environment where there aren’t any of the normal natural controls, and New Zealand is particularly vulnerable to invasives, both animal and vegetable….
Well thank you for the pic of travellers joy! I had it in my back yard for years and didn’t realise what it was. It was sited in the shade and never really flourished, then died off altogether this year. Wish I’d taken cuttings.
Choisya and Sarcoccoca do nicely in the shade, and yes, dog rose also. Our wild rose attracts a lot of aphids which in turn attract the tiny parasitoid wasps, ants, ladybirds, lacewings and small birds, and we also get leafcutters coming for the leaves. Sarcoccoca flowers in December and smells marvellous, great for winter active bees and hoverflies. Choisya has a long flowering period and attracts various flies, including the smaller syrphids. I think there are honeysuckles that do well in the shade, too, but I don’t have any.
We grow some hops along a section the 8ft high fence we share with our neighbour. It keeps the cats from staring through the fence! Since it has some gaps I use 2 ft trimmed rambler rose stems to barricade the bottom .
Hops are a great idea, thanks Liz!
Chaenomeles Japonica can be trained against a fence and gives flowers and fruit. Many years ago my neighbour’s Philadelphus bush spread its suckers under our fence so I kept a few shoots trained against the fence on my side. They are still there and very easy to maintain, I just remove the flowered shoots and have a bit of a thin of the rest once a year. They are spreading sideways and gradually replacing a Kerria Japonica as it slowly dies out.
We have Travellers’ Joy and it drapes itself over and through any trees it can reach. It’s not colourful but very pretty. You’ll need to keep it in order from time to time.
I only have a 2ft square patch of soil that is west facing. This year I filled an old planter on it with compost and soil, because I wasn’t confident about the ground, and grew runner beans up the wall behind it. They didn’t need much care after putting up strings and fed me and the pollinators!
Ah runner beans – yes, great idea!