A General Introduction to Vines

Few things make a backyard look more established than trailing vines growing along brick walls or trellises. And if you’re reading this book, you likely agree. Vining plants add a sense of prestige and place, helping your space look established. Depending on the variety, they can even offer privacy, shade, an abundance of flowers, or fresh fruit.

Should you commit to growing vines at home? Here’s what you need to know before deciding.

What Are Vines?

Vines are plants that lack the strong stems or trunks necessary to support their own weight. Instead, they produce tendrils that latch onto other plants or support structures. Vines will climb, creep, and sprawl towards whatever they can find to prop themselves up, growing either vertically or horizontally. They tend to be incredibly strong and are resistant to pulling or breaking.

With the right support structure, they are space-efficient plants that add impressive visual impact to any home or garden.

Benefits of Growing Vines

Should you consider adding vines to your outdoor garden? Here are some of their benefits:

  • Take advantage of small garden spaces by growing vertically.
  • Can cover unsightly fences to make them more aesthetically pleasing.
  • Create a garden focal point.
  • Create a living privacy screen to shield you from the neighbors.
  • Cover trellising for gorgeous floral displays.
  • Create shade on pergolas and arbors.
  • Many varieties produce fruit or other valuable products, such as hops for beer making.
What Kind of Care Do Vines Need?

Vining plants often take more time and effort to get established than other plant varieties. However, they can be well worth it, especially in the case of perennials that come back every year.

Some varieties will grow support structures naturally with little intervention on your end. Others will require training, meaning that you may need to tie tendrils to the support structure until they grow big enough to latch on themselves.

Can Vines Cause Problems?

Not every garden is suitable for every variety of vining plants. Some, like angel trumpet vine and wisteria, are extremely invasive and may take over the entire garden space if you don’t keep them contained. Besides harming surrounding plants, these might block drainpipes and gutters or cause other issues to your home. And without regular pruning, these fast growers can pull down the fences or trellises meant to support them.

In other cases, having vines growing up against a house can create moisture issues and even rotting. Hedera ivy and ficus pulila are even known to grow into the cracks of buildings and enlarge them to cause serious structural damage.

This means it’s necessary to research vine varieties and their impacts on your garden space before you commit to them. Here’s the good news: The rest of this eBook will help you make the right choices.