Up the Garden Ladder

After a bit of windy weather, the wisteria runners that had grown vertically upwards in the corner wall flopped over and made a bit of a tangled mess. This particular corner in the wall is a bit of a sun trap and it’s no surprise that all the growth seemed to be around there this year, given the lack of sun we’ve had.

It was only when I untangled these runners and discovered that some of them happily reached half-way down the kitchen door that I decided it all needed sorting out.

We already have two horizontal wire runs for the wisteria and so we added a third to accommodate these runners. I simply could not bear the thought of pruning them. Adding the new wire run meant getting the long ladder out and overall, it took a couple of hours to get the vine-eyes into the wall, the wire strung and the wisteria twined round it. The light was fading before I could completely finish so I need to head back up the ladder to finish the rest off.

The wisteria has just gone into its fourth year so is still pretty young, but it’s lovely to see it becoming established and grow large. As it does grow, it will cover a large area of plain windowless brick that would otherwise look very stark. Though it can’t yet compare to some of the venerable old wisteria growing on the walls of Cambridge colleges, it’s well on the way.

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2 comments

Stacy 30/08/2012 - 2:45 am
I like your idea of horizontal wires, Sunil, and I like the way the wisteria looks trained along them. Wisteria does really well here, but I normally see it draped over huge pergolas, which are out of my spatial league. I've been wanting a vine to cool the west wall of the house, and now I begin to see a way to do it... Thanks for the idea!
Sunil 30/08/2012 - 9:56 pm
Hi Stacy, I love wisteria, it's just so beautiful when it flowers in the spring and the fragrance is out of this world. If there's a warm brick wall, the best thing you can do to it is cover it in wisteria.
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