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Watering Your Fence Plants

Giving your fence plants enough water is crucial to their overall health and well-being. In this chapter, we’ll cover the basics of how to water your plants, whether they are newly planted or have been growing for a few years. We’ll also provide some tips that are specific to watering plants near fences versus anywhere else.

How to Water New Fence Plants

Newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennials will need more water than usual just after planting. The reason for this high-water need is that after planting, the plant must use a lot of energy to adapt to its new growing location. Frequent watering ensures the plant gets the moisture it needs, helping the roots to establish themselves in the soil.

While there is no set watering frequency for every new plant, it’s safe to assume that you should aim to keep the soil consistently moist at all times in most cases. This often means watering multiple times per week or even multiple times per day, depending on the growing conditions.

How to Water Established Fence Plants

After your fence plants have established themselves in their new growing location, their water needs will decline, often significantly. Of course, there are some plants, including fruiting plants or plants that grow in full sun, that will need relatively high amounts of water throughout their entire lives.

By contrast, other plants may only need supplemental watering during droughts after they have established themselves. Still, other plants may call for weekly or monthly watering during the growing season. As is always true, studying the specific needs of your plant species is the best way to ensure you’re watering them the right way.

Watering Tips for Fence Gardens

The sections above give a good general outline of how to water new and established plants. However, there are a few insights you should keep in mind when watering plants that are close to a fence.

Fences at times, especially tall, solid fences, can block precipitation. If the effect is significant enough, you may find some of your plants drying out sooner than you expected.

A similar issue can occur for plants that grow on the south-facing side of a fence in full sunlight. In that situation, the full sun and light reflecting off the fence may heat your plants more than normal, raising their need for supplemental watering.

Monitoring Fence Plants for Pests and Disease

Pests and diseases can be some of the most troublesome aspects of tending a garden. When you grow fence plants, you should not only be prepared to treat some of the most common garden pests and diseases, but you’ll also need to know of a few specific complications that are more likely when plants grow near fences.

Garden Pests to Watch Out for When Growing Fence Plants

Insect pests are a relevant concern for nearly any plant that you choose to grow. Here are a few such insects that you should be on the lookout for whether or not you grow plants near a fence:

Aphids

Caterpillars

Cutworms

Mites

Slugs

Snails

Scale

Weevils

Whiteflies

Interestingly, there are a few specific insects that may be more prevalent if you grow your plants near a fence. Mainly, these insects will be attracted to wooden fences and can move to your plants as well:

Borers

Beetles

Termites

Common Diseases for Fence Plants

As is true regarding insects, common garden diseases are also something you should be on the lookout for when growing a fence garden. Here are a few of the most prevalent garden diseases that good gardeners learn how to deal with:

Black spot

Blight

Canker

Shot hole

Black knot

Rust

Fruit scabs

Along with those common garden diseases, there are a few diseases that can be more common in fence gardens. These diseases are most likely to arise when a fence blocks sunlight, allowing moisture to accumulate that would normally evaporate. In the presence of such excessive moisture, these diseases are the most likely to arrive:

Mold

Powdery mildew

Be Prepared to Treat Fence Plant Pests and Diseases

Knowing about common plant pests and diseases does not mean much if you don’t know how to treat them. Proper treatment of these problems begins with correctly identifying what infestation or infection your plant is dealing with. After identifying the issue, it will be much easier to find a suitable solution.

As you would guess, the treatment plans for pests and diseases will change depending on the pest or disease in question. However, many of these common garden problems can be resolved with the application of insecticide or fungicide. Proper maintenance, including preventing moisture building up, is just as important for the prevention of infestation and disease.

Special Considerations When Planting Fence Plants: Spacing, Training, and More

It’s always a wise decision to monitor your plants more closely just after planting them. But this is especially the case when it comes to fence plants. Planting near a fence presents unique challenges that are not present in other planting scenarios, and you should be prepared to face them.

Judge the Spacing of Your Fence Plants

Proper spacing at planting time is one of the most crucial factors when it comes to planting along a fence. Prior to planting, you should have a firm grasp of your plant’s mature size and how well that will fit in your fence planting area. However, it is not until after your plants are growing that you can clearly see whether they’ll eventually interfere with your fence.

Most importantly, you should monitor the woody plants, trees, and shrubs that grow near your fence, as these are the most likely species to cause overcrowding and structural damage. If you notice a tree or shrub beginning to spread too near to your fence, you should intervene by pruning or shearing it. If that doesn’t work, you should transplant the plant to a new location before it causes a significant issue.

Learn How to Train Climbing Plants

If you plant climbing vines near or on your fence, your next step after planting may be to train your vines to grow in the manner you intend. Here is a simple method that you can use to train most vines to climb a fence:

Plant your vine close to your fence, leaving a small amount of space between them

Insert a wooden stake between your plant and the fence

Tie the lower part of your vine to the stake

Tie the upper part of your vine to the fence

Training a vine, as discussed above, gives you the chance to choose precisely where your vine will start growing. After your vine shows some healthy growth and attaches itself to the fence, you can remove the ties and allow the vine to grow on its own.

Monitor Growing Conditions Carefully

Fences can alter the amount of light and water that your plants receive, depending on how the fence is oriented in relation to the sun and rain. During the first weeks and months after planting, you should monitor the health of your newly planted fence plants to ensure that they are adapting well to their growing location.

If you notice that a plant seems to lack moisture when growing near a fence, you can easily resolve that issue by providing more water by hand. However, if you find that a plant is failing due to a lack of sunlight, you’ll likely need to replace it with one that is more suited to the light conditions your fence permits.

Sowing Seeds or Planting Transplants: How to Get Started

Assuming that you have thoughtfully selected your fence plants, it’s time to learn how to start your fence garden. In this chapter, we’ll cover two main ways that you can begin growing plants near your fence, either from seed or by purchasing transplants.

Growing Fence Plants from Seeds

Starting your fence plants from seeds is the first way that you can get your garden started, but it is not the most common way. Instead, starting from seed is only a common practice when growing vegetables. Other plants, including most ornamental species, typically go into the ground as transplants, a process we’ll address shortly.

However, if your goal is to create an edible fence garden full of vegetable plants that will provide you a harvest throughout the growing season, you have at least a general idea of how the seed-sowing process works. Here is a quick overview of how to plant seeds:

Fill a container with nutrient-rich soil

Plant your seeds at the proper depth (varies depending on species)

Keep your seedlings in a warm location

Keep the soil consistently moist at least until the seed germinates

Transplant your germinated seed outside when it is ready

The process for sowing seeds will vary somewhat depending on the types of plants you grow. However, the list above gives you a good idea of the steps you need to complete to start a plant from seed.

Purchasing Transplants for Your Fence Garden

Now that we’ve got the seed-sowing process out of the way, let’s talk about the more likely way that you’ll get your fence plants in the ground. Purchasing and planting transplants is the primary way that most gardeners add ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials to their gardens.

Planting a purchased transplant is relatively easy to do, but there are a few insights you should know before you get started. Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how to plant a transplant, regardless of what species it is:

Remove your transplant from its existing container

Dig a hole that is as deep as the root mass is tall and at least twice as wide as the root mass

Loosen the soil and roots on the sides of the root mass

Loosen the inner sides of your planting hole

Place the plant in the hole, ensuring the roots are just below the soil’s surface

Backfill with healthy soil

Water generously for the first few weeks

Cover the soil with mulch

Follow those steps for each purchased transplant, and your fence garden will be off to an excellent start.

How to Choose the Best Plants for Your Fence

No matter where you plant your next garden bed, there will be plenty of considerations to make before you select the plant species that will live there. Regarding planting areas near fences, this need for careful planning is as important as ever. The best way to prepare yourself, and your fence garden plan, is to understand how to choose the best plants for your fence area. This chapter will show you how.

Consider Ornamental Features Like Flowers, Foliage, Color, and Texture

There are plenty of practical matters for you to consider when planning a garden. However, the goal of a planting project such as this is to complement and enhance the aesthetic appearance of your property.

In keeping with that goal, choosing the ideal ornamental features for your fence plants should be a top priority. When evaluating plants for their visual appeal, you should take time to study the following:

Once you understand how each plant delivers on those qualities, you’ll have a better idea of how to match them to the style of your fence.

Anticipate the Mature Size of Your Plants

One of the most common mistakes gardeners make when planting near a fence is failing to anticipate the mature size of the plants they grow. Selecting planting species that are too large will quickly lead to an overcrowding problem.

The best way to avoid this blunder is to study the mature size of every tree and shrub you intend to grow near your fence. Focus specifically on the mature spread of your plant species. Then, provide at least half that dimension between your plant and your fence.

Understand How Vining Plants Climb

If you plant vines near your fence with the goal of having them climb over the fence, you need to understand how vining plants climb. Here is a quick breakdown of how vining plants attach themselves to the structures they climb:

Twining – The vine simply wraps itself around a structure as it grows.

Tendrils – The vines use small stems, known as tendrils, that attach to structures while the plant’s main stem grows upward.

Suction cups – These vines have small disk-shaped parts that act like suction cups to attach to flat surfaces.

When choosing a vine, you should match it to the type of fence you have. For example, twining and tendril vines may struggle to climb a solid fence with a flat surface, while vines with suction cups will have a much easier time.

Be Wary of Vigorous Vines

Our last tip for selecting fence plants is to be wary of vigorous climbing vines. Plants like trumpet vine, wisteria, and others can spread rapidly and aggressively, often outcompeting other plants in your garden and sometimes causing costly maintenance issues.

At times, these vines can even ruin your fence. This occurs most commonly with chain-link fences. After a few years, a fast-growing vine can become so intertwined with a fence that you cannot remove it without uprooting it or removing portions of the fence.

Exceptional Foliage Vines

Vines can come in many different forms, but the ones with the most intrigue throughout the growing season often hold interesting leaves. These leaves may impress you with their shapes or the range of colors they can hold. If you’re interested in adding exceptional foliage vines to your fence garden, read on to learn about the best types.

English Ivy

There are two foliage features that make English ivy stand out as an excellent ornamental fence plant. The first is the shape of the leaves, which is similar to a trident, with three distinct, pointed lobes. The next most interesting feature of these leaves is their color, which includes dark green and can show some variegation as well.

Virginia Creeper

The Virginia creeper is a valuable native vine species that supports the local ecosystem and adds plenty of beauty to your garden via its leaves. Virginia creeper leaves have five leaflets that spread out, similar to the fingers on your hand. In the fall, these leaves turn a deep red color that is quite impressive.

Morning Glory

The main reason that people plant morning glory vines is to enjoy their beautiful flowers. But what many people miss is that the leaves of morning glory are quite attractive as well. The leaves of this annual species are bright green and have a heart shape. Unlike other vines on this list, morning glory is an annual plant rather than a perennial. Despite that, these plants often reseed themselves and come back year after year with their neat funnel-like blooms. Morning glory gets its name from the fact that each flower opens during the morning hours. What’s even more remarkable is that each flower only lasts one day before fading.

Wandering Jew

The plant we know as wandering Jew, or Tradescantia zebrina, has leaves that are more impressive than most vine species. This foliage holds multiple vibrant colors, including purple, white, and light green. Wandering Jew is also an excellent plant to grow if you are new to gardening as it is adaptable and easy to care for as long as it gets the warmth it prefers. Typically, this plant grows best in hotter regions, including hardiness zone 9 and warmer.

Greater Periwinkle

Our final foliage vine is well known for both its leaves and its blooms. Those blooms are purple and have five small petals. The flowers strike a perfect contrast to the leaves, which can show blotches of green in the middles and yellow-ish variegation at the margins.

Flowering Vines

When you have a fence in your yard, one of the best ways you can enhance its appearance is by growing a flowering vine. A flowering vine that grows up and over a fence is a sight to behold, but if you want to achieve that look, you need to start by learning about some of the best plant varieties for this style.

Trumpet Vine

The trumpet vine, known to the botanical community as Campsis radicans, gets its common name from the shape of its flowers. Each summer, these blooms arrive with bright orange hues and a distinct trumpet shape. Trumpet vine flowers also attract some impressive pollinators, including hummingbirds. With a fast growth rate, you won’t need to wait long before your trumpet vine has covered your fence with beautiful leaves and flowers. However, that fast growth can come at a cost, as trumpet vines are often hard to control and are even listed as an invasive species in some areas.

Clematis

Clematis vines come in many varieties, most of which bloom with flowers that hold large petals arranged in a classic radial pattern, often with purple, blue, and white hues. These plants typically grow best where there is neutral, well-draining soil and plenty of sunlight.

Climbing Hydrangea

The most popular hydrangea varieties are shrubs that hold some of the most impressive flower clusters around. With a climbing hydrangea, you can experience those same spectacular blooms on a vine that can climb on most standard fences. When you plant and care for this species correctly, in little time at all, your fence will be covered with large, showy blooms each year.

Cypress Vine

Cypress vine is an elegant climbing species with slender stems and thin leaves. However, what’s most noteworthy about this species is its flowers, which are red with white centers and have a clear star shape. Cypress vine is a perfect option if you want a plant that will twine around your fence posts while looking fantastic during its bloom period. These plants are also valuable to insects and may attract hummingbirds as well.

Wisteria

Anyone who grows a wisteria vine should be well prepared to control it, as these plants grow quite aggressively in many instances. Still, if you are ready to maintain a wisteria, there is little stopping you from growing this plant on your fence and enjoying its copious purple blooms that dangle in clusters from above.

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Dopo l’allegagione, i frutti che crescono troppo densamente competono tra loro per ottenere le sostanze nutritive. I frutti poco sviluppati devono essere potati per consentire alla pianta di fornire nutrienti sufficienti alla produzione di frutti. Una potatura inadeguata potrebbe causare la caduta dei frutti o la loro mancata maturazione.

Dopo l’inizio della dormienza della pianta, rimuovere tutte le parti morte dal terreno.

Se le foglie ingialliscono e si ammalano durante la crescita della pianta, è necessario potare le foglie ingiallite e vecchie dalla parte inferiore e tagliare le porzioni delle foglie infettate dai batteri. In questo modo è possibile ridurre efficacemente l’infezione dei batteri. Cercate di non tagliare più di 1/4 del numero totale di foglie per non compromettere la crescita della pianta.

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Potate _COMMON_NAME_ dopo la maturazione dei frutti tagliando il fusto e le foglie al di sopra della seconda foglia più grande all’apice di ogni ramo. Questo può impedire ai fusti e alle foglie della pianta di continuare a crescere, riducendo la crescita verso l’alto e favorendo la crescita riproduttiva. I fiori o i frutti che crescono troppo densamente entrano in competizione tra loro per ottenere le sostanze nutritive. I fiori poco sviluppati e i frutti di piccole dimensioni devono essere potati per consentire alla pianta di fornire nutrienti sufficienti alla produzione di frutti. Una potatura inadeguata potrebbe causare la caduta dei frutti o la loro mancata maturazione.

Dopo l’inizio della dormienza della pianta, rimuovere tutte le parti morte dal terreno.