ideas for camouflaging in the garden
 

Hi guys

Moving into a new house and thinking up ideas for the garden lol.. It is a rectangular shaped garden, big in size enclosed with a high wall - 8 blocks and the high wall is facing our back windows. It looks very obvious at the minute and would like to camouflage it somehow.

I put an ad in wanted for some trellis.
I was thinking of putting up trellis and having some climbing plants. Is that a good idea? I think i will stay clear of ivy because parents planted that at home and it seemed to take over!! I would like something that is colourful but something that will not be very bare in the winter.

Also any ideas for covering up an oil tank? Without being a fire hazard! Was thinking of planting some trees around the tank but at the same time I want it to be accessable down the line when the trees might be huge so not sure if thats good idea! Anyone plant hedging around their tank?

Any ideas welcome :)

Hi there i don't know a lot but i put a trellis all around my oil tank to disguise it and put up passionflower, it grew well, another one is honeysuckle, they both look very nice. Passionflower is unusual and purple, and honeysuckle i had smelled divine and was yellow! Good luck with it all.

Regarding the oil tank, i just bought a square of trellis, like a sheet, and made a three sided wall if you know what i mean, my shed was on the other side! I made sure i could access the top and the handle at the bottom. I would go out from time to time and thread the honeysuckle tentacles through the trellis, it worked well but took about a year, downside, it sheds i think in winter! Community Worshop usually does trellis's at a reasonable cost!

Thanks for your ideas Bawnie :)

My father also has passionflower around his tank and it works well & looks lovely. Only issue is that you have to cut it well back in the winter or all the flowers end up at the top and it gets very "stalky".

As regards your back wall trellis & climbers will work but make sure you factor in waht direction the wall is facing. For example if the wall faces north the climbing plant will be in shade most of the time and there are only a few plants that like this kind of environment. Your garden center can advise you.

Another idea if you don't want grey block visible through the trellis is to randomly paint it in camoflage colours. Buy a couple of shades of greens and brown and go nuts. Doesn't have to look amazing if it will be covered in trellis but will give the impression of having more foliage there until your climbing plants mature.

honey suckle
 

dont go buying any plants of this as it grows very well from cuttings i once bought some it died so i took bits growing along the road and it is great lol also hebies grow well from cuttings just stick in the ground
You could grow some sweet pea until the honeysuckle takes off just some ideas

If you've got little ones, be careful of honeysuckle. I remember as kids we used to love pulling the flowers and sucking them for the honeysuckle juice. But too much is minimally poisonous causing vomiting, diarrhoea and can make you very lethargic.

I got a gooseberry plant for my horrible grey back wall and within a few years it had really spread out. Just cut back any shoots that grow out away from the wall and train the other branches against the wall.

I've also done the same with rosemary plants, though after a few years these need support as the branches get quite thick.

Am currently trying the same thing with raspberry plants and it's going fairly well.

I should say though, that the only one of these that stays green overwinter is the rosemary
Lisa

Hi Jenniferalan, I posted on another thread (think it might have been for paprika, but could be wrong!) about a plant I have used in my garder to cover a brick wall at back of large flower bed. It's a climbing geranium (cuttings received from a friend) all you need are a few cuttings to start you off. This grows very quickly and produces lovely pink flowers, while leaves remain green throughout the winter. I needs strong support like mesh to tie it to and needs to be tied in while growing, but well worth the effort. Am going to try growing this near my own oil tank soon and hopefully it will be successful, but judging by it, it seems to grow almost anywhere.

Maybe if you knew someone who had one of these plants growing you could obtain some cuttings from them, all you need is a few, or your local garden centre might have it. Best of luck.

Garden
 

When I moved in to my house the soil was really poor and I knew it would take ages for anything decent to grow.
Might not be to all tastes - But I painted the wall Blue ( yup Blue) and put fairy lights up- Look Fab in the evenings. Just an idea - But I loved it-

Hi Cianer, thanks a mil for your great ideas. I love the idea of growing passionflower at the tank...thanks for giving me advice about what way the wall is facing I hadn't thought about that! I LOVE the idea about painting the wall different greens..just have to persuade Alan lol

Thanks Misstake. Going to try get as many cuttings as I can from neighbours and friends, hopefully something will grow lol!

Thanks Lisa for that. I was at a friends house yesterday and spotted some gooseberry plants and rosemary, so will definitely get some cuttings!

HI smokeyeyes, climbing Geranium sounds gorgeous, will have to try that too, thanks for the advice :)

AKO5 just wondering where u plugged in the fairy lights? Do u have external plugs? I love fairy lights they're so pretty :)

depending on what way the wall is facing i know someone who grew apple trees against a south facing wall looks lovely as it splays out across it, you could paint it and use fairy lights too it would be like a little apple fairy heaven!! good luck with whatever u choose :)

Hi Jennifer, if you have a north facing wall you could try planting hydrangea petiolaris - climbing hydrangea, it's self clinging and has a white lace cap flower

Thanks very much, sounds beautiful

Garden
 

Sorry Jennifer,
Yes have external power in the shed, my Husband put it in .
Will attach photo of it at night- cos I think it's lovely.

All the best
Edel

Looking forward to seeing pics. I saw solar fairy lights on Nigels Eco Store and I'm thinking of buying them when all necessities are bought lol

H i Jennifer, Im not 100 % sure but not all solar lights work if there are any kind of street lights we had them in dublin but now we live in tipp they all work fine as there are no street lights cos we live in the middle of nowhere. I dont know if you ever watch the garden design programmes but i was watching once with alan titchmarsh and a girl was using broken tiles on a piece of marine ply with cement as the grout and what she made was fantastic. It was 3 different sheets with a beautiful flower scene on it no money would ever pay for something like that and it was stunning. They used it to cover a wall it was screwed onto the wall and they built the entire garden around it i have never seen anything so beautiful. Im collecting tiles at the moment myself to do something like this in the summer if we ever get one and its a project the whole family or friends or neighbours can get involved in so good luck with your garden and isnt Edels garden beautiful Go Edel.... You can buy outdoor sockets in any hardware now where you can put the plug belong to it inside the house if you drill a small hole in the wall and if your inside socket has a switch on it you can just turn on and off the switch for instant light instead of looking for plugs and all that messing anyway good luck with it all Regards Lolo

Wow ako5, your garden is gorgeous. Does those extra lights cost much? I would love to have my garden like that, also how did u stick them to the wall? :)

Hi lolo, thanks for the tip, I never knew that street lighting could effect solar lights. You're idea of mosaic tiling sounds lovely, how would u go about doing it?

Garden
 

I don't think they cost too much (to run) and they were just outdoor fairy lights .
We attached trellece to the wall then wove the lights up and down it in diagonals using a staple gun at stragetic points ( mm like when I thought they needed a bit of extra support)
Ran some all along the top of the fencing on the other side too- just using a staple gun.
Only thing is sometimes bulbs blow and the strand goes out so its a pain in the ass trying to find the faulty bulb.
If I were doing it again I'd invest in LED bulbs .
But I do love it and it used to look like a fairy garden I now have a loose 2year old boy so doesn't really look like a fairy garden anymore.
All loose ornaments have been removed buried or taken for drives in diggers etc.
But it can still be lovely when you no who has gone to the land of nod.

bump please for more ideas

Garden walls
 

Hi Jennifer, A good plant to get is a cultivated briar. This is basically blackberries without thorns. You train it up the wall, trellis etc and grow your own fruit. Wall camouflage and home-made jam or berries and ice-cream with no scratches.
Another idea is to use mirrors in the garden. Attach a piece to the end wall but put a piece of wood under one side so mirror is not flat and facing you. It reflects plants off side wall and gives the impression of depth or there being something more than what you see.
We used mirrors in a couple of places where we didn't want to be looking at a blank wall--worked quite well. Put mirror behind an old window we weren't using, attached to the side wall of the shed, put window boxes underneath and everyone is fooled! At night when the lights are on in my kitchen it reflects in the mirrors and looks like a light on over there(if you know what I mean) Pics included, Eibh.

Eibhlin's message reminded me that a mate of mine went the whole hog and made her back wall look like an old cottage! It looks fantastic.

In a nutshell she had the wall rough-plastered to look like rural Irish cottage, then put in two fake windows with mirrors instead of glass and and windowsills for putting plant pots on. There was a gateway in her wall that leads to a football field behind her house so she replaced the old gate with a front door someone was throwing away (probably a jumbletown job, I forget) and painted it with outdoor wood paint for the final touch. You could leave a recess in the rough-plaster to get the same effect and just screw the door to the wall.

I'm afraid the only photo I have is a crappy camera phone one, but in the flesh its absolute genius. I can give you a (slightly) better quality version if you PM me.

hi Eibh
Sorry its taken me so long to reply. I only check JT on my phone lately and its hard to reply on a phone! Thanks for all your ideas and ur lovely pics. Also love all your repurposing, v inspiring!

Thanks Cian also for the cottage idea and the picture it really does look like a cottage its a great idea! :)