posted 10 years ago
Hi Shaz, welcome to the permies forums!
Hops got a brief mention, and I think they're great for summer shade and winter sun. I did not see where or if you mentioned which direction your windows face. I think that would make a difference. If they are south facing, then I think you'd be glad to have the sun shine in in the winter. With hops, they do die to the ground when the cold weather comes, but you can leave all the dry vegetationb in place. Mine turn a kind of rust color, and all the cones/ the dry flowers with the fragrant lupulin in them are there too. You could leave them in place if you did not want the bare look in the winter. ONe thing that's wonderful about hops is that they die to the ground, and in the spring, there is nothing that comes up faster. They really do grow a foot a day. then leaf out. They will come right up into last years dry stuff. What I have done is build a vertical trellis, then gone horizontal over to a roof, so that I get shae underneath. (I live in the desert, shade is good in the summer). After a few years you probably would want to pull it all down and start fresh, but you don't have to worry about pruning. once the bine 'goes to sleep' it won't use those stems again. It is great mulch, or goat forage.
What else about hops is that if you want, when you build some form of support for it to climb, you can make it as artsy as you want. You could make windows in the support so that you could look strategic directions, where there was something you wanted to see, from a particular chair in your living room, you could leave windows for people to look in to your space, but you could make the windows off set from your house windows..... all kinds of ways to play...
What I have build is vertical wood posts ( formerly tree trunks, but what ever you've got....) with horizontal members, then jute twine from the horizontals down to the soil. Hops are not like ivy or wisteria or clematis, with a means to hold on and attach. their stems are fough and they rely on friction. They wrap themselves around following the sun's direction of movement... if you help and twist them the "wrong" direction, the plant will untwist for awhile trying to get straightened out...
There are decorative varieties that have golden leaves, and not so many hops cones, or plenty of the kinds that the brewers use.
I did not see where anyone had mentioned blackberries. There are thornless varieties with delicious fruit.
I like the idea of an ever green clematis, there are several, but I do not know what their cold tolerance is. There are some nice cold tolerant ones, Clematis montana rubra is a species clematis with pink flowers in spring that will grow a long ways. If you do consider clematis, there are spring or summer flowering varieties, and the pruning varies by bloom times. Some clematis have medicinal uses
Which reminds me there are roses to consider. We had one where I grew up called a "barnyard rose" also called lady banksia. It can be a cream or a yellow color, yellow more common. It would need a support of some kind, my memory is they are thornless. They grow 20 feet or more in time. Not too hard to keep them cut back, but if you don't want to cut things back you could find climbing roses in other mature sizes. There are other thornless climbing roses too, in colors, with or without fragrance. Much larger variety of roses with thorns if that's not an issue. Some bloom only once a year, in the spring. Others bloom all summer. If you go for roses, there are uses for the petals beyond just loving their beauty.
keep us posted, I love to know what people decide, and steal good ideas and spread them around.
Thekla
Best luck: satisfaction
Greatest curse, greed