We just put up a stone wall as a backdrop to our seven or eight fig trees, to try to protect them from the wind and provide a medium to store the sun's warmth so that they'll winter over more easily. The back side of it needs something to soften the look. We had planned to use Virginia creeper, because it grows wild around here, it's pretty in the summer and fall, and it provides good food for the birds. But I went over to Plantfiles and discovered that a lot of people are very allergic to it. We've never reacted to it, but then we've never dealt with it extensively before, either, and it seemed as though actually planting some would be asking for trouble. Any suggestions about what we can use instead that's attractive and wildlife-friendly? The wall is about 30' long and about 5' high.....
Vine for a Stone Wall?
If you really like it, I'd say go ahead and plant it and just be careful when you're pruning it so that you avoid skin contact (wear gloves, etc) You can't get a reaction to it without touching it, so as long as you don't have kids who are going to be trying to climb the wall with the creeper on it you shouldn't have any trouble with it as long as you take a few precautions during pruning.
If it creeps over the wall we'll have to come into contact with it when checking for figs, though, and in the summer we're dressed lightly.
We have handled it before without problems, but we also thought we weren't allergic to poison ivy until we had to eradicate some on our river bank, and then we both came down with it!
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