Garden Vines
- Gwen Moye
- Jun 24, 2017
- 6 min read
Feel like something is missing in your garden you find yourself bored with the usual assortment of flowers and shrubs in your landscape design, try adding a vine to your garden. Vines offer a unique touch to any garden. Not only do they bring additional and much needed color to your yard and that extra shade, screen and shelter when you wish to spend a quiet afternoon reading. your garden vine can be your favorite fruit, flowers or vegetables.They make maximum use of the vertical outdoor space in your garden.
Here are some unique benefits for adding vines to your garden
No soil needed! you have no doubt used up every inch of your soil space.
There are also a many vines that can provide you with edible fruit and vegetables
Vines are very useful when you have areas where you don't want deep roots from appearing.
They can be used as a ground cover to help prevent slopes in your garden from erosion. Read Getting Down And Dirty With Soil.
A great idea is to add an arbor or two to your garden when they plan your vine. Although some may think an arbor surrounded by vines is a garden symbol, nobody can deny it still add a certain unique charm to the space. If you should go for the arbor idea you need to make sure that you choose rustic looking wood that is painted, stained or treated.
You have to Keep in mind the maintenance costs when you’re out shopping for an arbor for your garden. It must suit not only your personality and garden but the color and structure of the type vine you choose as well.
Most vines are fast-growing, so your arbor should be fully encased in vines in about a year or two. You need the type of vine that attach itself as opposed to the type that twine to walls and posts thier stems are flexible which go around a support arbor or tree trunk
Here are a few ideas
Vines do not have a built-in structure that could use another object or plant for support; That is why these vines would have to be either tied to or woven through arbors, posts or any other structure. The best example of this type of vine is climbing roses.
Another type of Vines is Perennial a
Example of perennial vines
Here are some examples of annual vines
Before you select a vine you need to make sure this is what you want in your yard because Vines after all take a few years more or less to grow and establish before then they can look quite awkward in their early stages.
It would be a problem for you to cut them off when you find yourself impatient with their slow growth. Lastly, keep in mind that some types of vines are heavier than other types and may need a sturdier type of support for better growth and easier maintenance.
Your Color Scheme
A good color wheel would make it easier for you to follow along with the color scheme explanations when you look at where the colors fall on the wheel. You can buy at your local Garden center stores
You need to make sure to keep the color wheel handy while you decide on your use of color, and take it with you when you shop for plants.
Your color schemes should be pleasing to the eye, and the colors should harmonize together not to be confused with harmonizing colors on the color wheel, and they fall into several categories in the garden: For example complementary colors that fall close to one another on the color wheel.
What is the difference between creepers and vines?
Remember this all creepers are vines however not all vines are creepers. Even though there are not any botanical differences between the two many gardeners use the terms to explain the uses for the plants. You can use them both interchangeably by letting them climb a arbor, gazebo fence, ladder even a patio the sky's the limit. They can also be used to spread across the ground as ground covers great for evening out sloping hillsides.
Both vines and creepers can be evergreen. Some may keep their leaves during the winter while others are deciduous which mean they will lose their leaves during the cold months only to spring back to life when the weather warm up. What they both have in common is their long weak stems that need support when they grow upward.
Some of you have some creepers grow so vigorously that that some gardeners feel they are invasive, smothering native species of plants that disrupt the natural environments.
The California Invasive Plant Council have listed a number of creepers on their list of invasive plants in the central coastal areas, such as cape-ivy (Delairea odorata), English ivy (Hedera helix) and crystalline ice-plant
How To Kill Vines That Strangle Plants
A lot of vine roots will break off when you try to pull them out of the ground, that almost always result in numerous new plants. You can use herbicide on them and over time they will to kill strangling vines, but apply it very carefully so you don't kill desirable plants.This will Kill The Vine Root System as well.
Need To Kill Vines Without Harming Your Trees?
Because vines grow quickly they can easily overtake the trees in your yard. whether they were planted intentionally or if they are poisonous vines, for example poison oak. If they are left to grow, your ground vines can grow right into your tree canopies and suffocate that tree. Now herbicides will kill vines and other plants, they may also harm trees. I don't think you want to do that.
You need to be very selective herbicide, for example triclopyr, is absorbed through vine roots into the soil and that will take up to 90 days to break down, during that time it can cause significant harm to your trees, especially your young trees.
1.The first thing you want to do is cut the vines at the base of the tree, at about ankle height, with hand pruning shears. Cut larger vines with hand loppers or a pruning saw.
2.Then Cut the vines attached to the tree at shoulder height with hand pruning shears. You need to cut the bigger vines with your hand loppers or a pruning saw. In most cases, ground vines grow from the ground and up tree trunks.
3.Then you spray water onto the ground about 6 feet in diameter around the base of the tree. Don't forget to water the soil deeply and allow it to soak overnight. This will softens the soil and makes it easier to pull out vines by hand.
4.You can now pull the vines from the ground around the tree base by your hands. Just grab the vines at the base and pull upward to remove the vine roots from the soil.
5.Your next step is to dig up stubborn vine roots from the soil with a shovel. Make sure you use extra caution when digging around the base of the tree so you don't cut or damage the tree roots.
6. You need to let the vines that are attached to the tree between the cuts to completely die. It will be easier to remove the vines from the tree when they are dead. All the vines above the shoulder-height cuts will die off after a few days and they are not as securely attached as to when they were alive.
7. Now you can pry the vines from the tree bark gently, using a flat tipped screwdriver that you need to wrap with a cloth or the blade of the hand pruning shears. Then you can slip the tip of the screwdriver or the pruning shear blades between the vine and tree bark to loosen the vine tendrils from the tree.
8. Now you need to pull the vines from the tree gently, not hard working a few inches at a time to prevent damaging the tree bark. Pull the vines from the around the tree between the cuts until you have removed all the vines from the tree. You can now let the overhead vines to die off and decay or fall on their own because you risk pulling dead tree branches out of the tree if you tug on the vines.
9. Place the vines in your compost pile or put poisonous vines in a garbage bag and dispose of them with your regular household garbage.
10.You need to spread about a 3-inch layer of mulch 6 feet in diameter around the base of the tree where you should have pulled up the vines. Remember to Keep the mulch 3 inches away from the trunk of the tree to prevent insect and rodent infestations. Mulching will stop the vines from reestablishing themselves around the tree. Alternatively, you can sow grass seed or lay sod in the bare area to crowd out the area and restrict vine growth.
11. Your very last step is to check around the base of the tree periodically after removing the vines and pull out any new vine growth. If you've removed the vine roots from the soil, there is less chance of vines reestablishing in the area.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to share, comment, and like us on Facebook
Comments