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What to plant instead of English Ivy?

 
Posts: 66
Location: Lacey, Wa
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I'd like to get a permacultural view on this.

I've got this 6 foot tall chain link fence running 70 feet roughly on the north-south axis literally 4 feet from the edge of my house. It used to be covered in ivy, which was removed because each year the neighbor had to rip up vines 10 feet long from her yard, and because it was starting to tangle with my kiwi, the house, and had generally just gotten too big.

The fence is pretty well shaded, the soil drains well. I'm looking for some kind of vine to provide some privacy from the neighbor. Ideally, it would be evergreen and provide some flowers and/or fruit. Year before last was one of the coldest we've seen, and it got down to 5 degrees. Also, it wouldn't want to invade the neighbor's yard quite so much. Or, maybe some kind of espaliered evergreen shrub?

You can still see some of the woody vines left from the ivy. It was first attacked spring of last year, and we've been picking the small amount of growth it's had regularly (and I believe the neighbor dumped some herbicide on one spot, but it doesn't seem to have affected much). I'm hoping to be able to plant next spring, and will probably keep having to remove vegetation from the ivy for a while.

Here are some pictures, taken at 11 am this morning to give you an idea of what I'm working with.

Looking North:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RuTTBmxcUr0/ThtGc554J8I/AAAAAAAABMM/-mh37G3G7-M/s640/DSCN3245.JPG

Looking South, from the end of the fence:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0tMMfiU9h-Q/ThtGmwKUMnI/AAAAAAAABMc/ncwR9xFRQhE/s512/DSCN3249.JPG

Looking South, closer to the house:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Hbwys4sGwQA/ThtGdUyBQYI/AAAAAAAABMQ/_yiSB1raI4c/s512/DSCN3247.JPG

Ideas? I was thinking maybe Clematis armandii?
 
Posts: 700
Location: rainier OR
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Several.sorts of cane berries are evergreen in mild climates and keeping them tied to a fence reduces thirty tendency to run 
 
Anna Carter
Posts: 66
Location: Lacey, Wa
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Brice Moss wrote:
Several.sorts of cane berries are evergreen in mild climates and keeping them tied to a fence reduces thirty tendency to run 



Hmm, when I think of cane berries, I think of raspberries, blackberries, salmon berries, etc, and none of those are evergreen here. What kind are you thinking of? Maybe I just haven't seen them around here.
 
Brice Moss
Posts: 700
Location: rainier OR
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where are you located? I'm in costal Oregon and blackberries are definitely evergreen here, though last years canes do die and need removed. I would have thought that it would be the same for any climate where Ivy was evergreen.

I would definitely focus on creating a productive barrier, but willow can be leveraged into a nice fenceline just find a tree you can cut some 4-5 foot sticks off and punch them about 10" into the soil, keep em wet for a few weeks and they will reroot and grow about 10 foot a year if the deer don't eat all the tender shoots I have a fence started with curl willow to shield me from the neighbors driveway.
 
Anna Carter
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Location: Lacey, Wa
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South end of puget sound. I wish blackberries were evergreen here. Oh well.
 
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
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Anything except ivy!  My god!  If you let it feel like home, you'll never get rid of ivy!  The only place I have ever seen ivy die was in New jersey ("The Garden State"!) LOL
 
Anna Carter
Posts: 66
Location: Lacey, Wa
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John Polk wrote:
Anything except ivy!  My god!  If you let it feel like home, you'll never get rid of ivy!  The only place I have ever seen ivy die was in New jersey ("The Garden State"!) LOL



Yeah, it's been a pain in the behind to kill this thing, but I think we're almost there. I'm pretty sure it'll be gone by next spring, which is why I'm looking around for a good alternative now.
 
Posts: 418
Location: Eugene, OR
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Even if the leaves died on a blackberry vine it might still provide a sufficient privacy screen. My blackberry has a pretty thick tangle of vines, but it never loses its leaves here so I'm not sure what it would look like without them. Homegrown blackberries sure are good, though!
 
pollinator
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Location: Vancouver Island
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Paleo Gardener wrote:
Even if the leaves died on a blackberry vine it might still provide a sufficient privacy screen. My blackberry has a pretty thick tangle of vines, but it never loses its leaves here so I'm not sure what it would look like without them. Homegrown blackberries sure are good, though!



Blackberries? you mean those things everyone wants to get rid of because they take over everything? Requires pigs to keep controlled? The berries are nice, but I can get them anywhere on public land without having to deal with them on mine... Maybe in a drier climate they are not so bad. (PNW here)
 
Posts: 62
Location: Northern Cali, USA -zone 9-
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morning glories, bring in beneficials. Or do some small asian melons https://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/product-info.php?pid500.html
 
                                
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John Polk wrote:The only place I have ever seen ivy die was in New jersey ("The Garden State"!) LOL



Didn't you hear NJ changed their nickname to something more apt.  Its now called "The Chemical State."   
 
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