I'm in zone 8a, erratic weather (this year mostly very wet, some years dry as a gone), high humidity, mostly sun where I'm wanting to plant.
The HUGE dead pine log in the photo below isn't going anywhere. I tried to cover it with those
concrete mesh panels to make low-tunnel-type trellises to plant cucumbers on. In the photo below, you see cucumbers, winter squash, nasturtiums, and runner beans I planted earlier this year on the southern side of the log, which does get a decent amount of sun. The runner beans and nasturtiums, by now, have overrun everything and the squash didn't do much at all. The cucumbers were a disaster. The runner beans were lush and green but didn't flower much or make many pods. I'm working on the soil, but it's heavy red Georgia clay a few inches down.
The log itself is great for solitary bee houses; there are existing beetle holes in it and I'm also drilling more in the open areas between the trellises. What I want to do is plant something on the path side of the log (the right side in the photo) that will be evergreen and attractive to cover the log, provide something good for pollinators to dizz out on, and (importantly) something I won't have to tear out at the end of a growing season. Ideally, I'd like it to grow up onto the
trellis and over onto the other side
enough to shade lettuces, or I could plan to have a little composting area that will be hidden from street view by the log that will be attractive to little birdies.
But I'm drawing a blank. All I can think of are
native honeysuckle and the usual array of annual vining plants. Any ideas? If there is no evergreen vine that would work, I could live with something deciduous as long as it wouldn't have to be torn off at the end of the season. This is an eyesore area of my garden that I want to get going with something that will take care of itself while I work on developing the rest of my forest garden.
