Vine/Fence Advice Needed!

[SaintCyr]

Ok all we need some helpful advice on something we hope to beautify our house as well as dressup/disguise a neighborhood eyesore (at least from one side)....

So just to give you an idea of what we are trying to do. We are building a wire fence along the front of our house and want to plant a VERY well behaved evergreen vine along it to not only be good looking but also dampen the sounds of traffic along the street (I live on Yale)... The well behaved piece is important here as I don't want huge vines taking over the sidewalk and the front yard, just a nice looking vine to knock down some of the sound from the street.

In addition to this we are putting a trellis (10 foot 4x4s and wire strung at every foot) along the ENTIRE north side of our property to hide a 9-10 foot multicolored sheet metal fence and also to stop the traffic noise from being amplified. This is where I would like to get creative and don't mind a vine that isnt as well behaved... I'd like to get something in there that is evergreen just to knock down the sound BUT also would love to have several different vines all intertwined that bloom at different times of the year to create some sort of mask not only from our house but also from the street. I am open to ALL possibilities!

Just some additional info... The front fence is full shade as it's under a live oak tree and the north side of the property is partial shade to full shade. Once the vine gets to 8-10 feet tall though it would be full sun. Let me know your thought or questions because I will be planting in the next 2-3 weeks! Thanks in advance for all your help! Hopefully when this time comes around next year you all will be able to see the results!

Thanks,

D

[crunchtastic]

For a woody evergreen that will fill in thick and relatively fast, a star or confederate jasmine will work well and they do OK in parital

shade. I've got a star jasmine on an east fence now that I wish wasn't there, because the morons who planted it put landscape shrubs and small trees one foot

off the fence line, and the vine eats everything in its path. You'll only get spring blooms, though. For summer blooms a trumpet vine is good but you

may not have enough sun. I like coral honeysuckle and have put some on a west iron fence, but it seems to be a slow grower. If you are really

serious about something not well-behaved, there's always wisteria! They're showy and I love them, provided they're in someone else's yard which is

not adjacent to mine!

[sarahiki]

You could consider my old nemesis, the bougainvillea, for the area that doesn't require good behavior. Mine all died in the frost, even the one I liked, but aside from a killing frost they seem indestructible. And bloom like crazy. And provide protection from intruders with their evil spiky thorns.

Morning glory would be a friendlier alternative. It really takes over, but has pretty little flowers.

[Ross]

You could consider my old nemesis, the bougainvillea, for the area that doesn't require good behavior. Mine all died in the frost, even the one I liked, but aside from a killing frost they seem indestructible. And bloom like crazy. And provide protection from intruders with their evil spiky thorns.

Morning glory would be a friendlier alternative. It really takes over, but has pretty little flowers.

I was going to recommend the bougainvillea as well. Never seen one that didn't grow like crazy, and they are indestructible. Just don't get caught up in the thorns. We've also had luck with the confederate jasmine, but ripped it out when we decided to change our yard a bit.