Training ivy up the front of the house

Hello everyone, I have been working on my cottage garden here and it is coming along nicely. Have put in all my perennials and am now seeking out annuals (any suggestions?)
Any way I live in a two story brick house and am wanting to warm it up a bit, it looks BIG and STERILE. I was hoping to train either english or boston ivy up the front, or some other vine.
The problem is we have a deck that goes around the perimeter of the house. Would I plant the ivy in huge planters on the deck?
Here is a picture of what I am working with.
Thanks!

While I can understand your wish to warm things up a bit, you may want to give a second thought to training anything to go up the side of your house. I know lots of people do and it looks beautiful, but you are basically building a ladder for mice/chipmunks/squirrels to get to the top of your house and possibly into your attic.

If you build it, they will come. ;)

We have a colonial with windowboxes. Last year I trained morning glories to go up from pots on our front porch to the center window directly above the front door. It looked gorgeous. But then the autumn came and it was time to rip out the summer flowers and put the mums in. As I was ripping out the plants from the center box, the one that the morning glories had been trained up to, sure enough there was a little mouse staring back up at me. Now, he couldn't have made it any higher up our house than that window box, but we are now very very careful to not have anything growing over the house that could act as a ladder.

You may also want to be careful with assorted climbers because some of them can do a lot of structural damage as well as become nearly impossible to eradicate once established.

I do think some shrubbery, pots and windowboxes would do a lot for you though. I usually put million belles, geraniums and trailing false black-eyed susan in my windowboxes. Only the geraniums need to be dead-headed and the other two trail beautifully without a lot of fuss.

Good luck!

Oh, yes, be careful about the vine idea. Could be a real problem. Just had to have the 'critter ridder' guy out to get rid of a raccoon in the attic and he talked about all the problems Niere mentioned with vines on the houses. Yuck!

I love the idea of shutters/window boxes and some nice shrubs like oakleaf hydrangeas around the foundation. It's a very pretty house with lots of potential! Keep us posted on your progress!

If you want a vine, I suggest something with soft unclimbable (by rodents) stems and deciduous, like clematis.

Or how about climbing hydrangea vine. I don't think it leaves marks like Ivy does.

I spent most of my younger years climbing very tall ladders to cut ivy back from around the gutters and windows. It would take me just about all day to do it, finally I convinced my Mom we needed to tear the ivy out and then I spent about three years trying to scrub ivy stickers off the bricks with a metal brush.

No fun !!

Certain english or Boston Ivy,are considered to be very Invaisive,and its on a please dont plant list ,I had some ,dont anymore !! Ihave seen it take over huge trees here,1 tree he did cut the Ivy at ground level,and dug it out ,you should see the mess in the huge pine tree,and the other tree is a maple it will most like end up dead in a few more years,the stuff is really pretty,but sure is mean .I need to find that list of dont plant,its suprizing what was on it.

Adding shutters to your windows and planter boxes would look nice and brighten up the walls . Ivy is lovely but as everyone agrees, can be a problem for critters & spiders like it too!

I must agree, windowboxes would look amazing, perhaps some very large pots with some tropicals in them, maybe if possible if you enjoy being outdoors a table and chairs with the umbrella on it in a corner. Some shade plants under the deck or maybe some lattice attached to the main beams with some blooming vines like a larger clematis.

An espalier fruit tree may look nice on the vast section of wall with no windows. Here is a link to give you some ideas. I would imagine these could be grown in large pots provided that they get ample water, fertilizer and sun. I think it would give you a vine look but not over take the house.
http://www.henryleuthardtnurseries.com/

PS.. and as a bonus you will have beautiful blossoms on it in the spring and fruit to eat in the summer.

This message was edited May 29, 2009 6:51 PM

How about a climbing rose like New Dawn? I saw a gorgeous photo in the "Name your favorite Climbing Rose" forum on Dave's. I would LOVE that.

I think shutters would compliment the nice architectural detail of the brick around your windows and doors. What great structure to work with. The window boxes are a great idea, also. In addition, I'm wondering how the structure of the deck could be incorporated into the incline of the hill....lattice, maybe, around the underside to cover the posts.... with a couple of arches. Do you use the basement of the home where the walkout door is? If so, would you want to eventually put in a set of patio doors to look out into your back gardens. Just food for thought. Is the deck wide enough that you could add a swing under it or a terrace eventually. Another thing, is the possiblity of adding an arbor over part of the deck to soften the length of the deck, itself, and create an area for seating under the arbor and an area for eating, cooking. This would create an area for some shade plantings as well as sun-loving plants. The corner area could have a different arbor arrangement....like a triangle....to create interest and encourage entrance to the back deck arrangement from the side deck.

Thank you all for such great ideas! We do plan on having shutters installed (black??) And I love the idea of large window boxes.
The deck is HUGE! I also like the lattice idea under the deck. I am not understanding the arbor idea?? Would you mind explaining it a bit, picture? I am a very visual learner. You guys are wonderful! Thank you SO much!
Amy
Here the view from the deck, winter view of course.

Found this web site that has many styles of arbors and pergolas to look at. I am looking for something also to build at my back fence as my neighbors put up a tall childrens play structure so i
now have to look at that, plus the kids looking in my yard & pond all the time. Love kids, but love my privacy too! They have some pretty examples on this site. All of which could be made up on your deck
http://www.peacefulsettings.com/gallery1Arbors.htm.

Grow hops! They are fast growers and deciduous - and pretty! Make sure they are not invasive in your zone.

My old house had Boston ivy growing up the front. The tiny pod fingers it uses to cling do absolutely no damage. If it got too rampant, I could stand on the ground once a year and just pull down the few vines that were going too far. It will turn a gorgeous red in fall. And that side of the house, which got hot afternoon sun all afternoon, was much cooler thanks to the insulation from the ivy. Boston ivy is not invasive. What was on my house had been planted 15 years before and hadn't spread one inch beyond where it had been planted. I lived there for nearly 20 years and it still hadn't spread one inch.

I don't know how many people looked at my house and tried to tell me I'd better get that stuff off there because it would damage my house. It did no damage whatsoever. One workman came to the house and said it reminded him of the houses in his hometown in Germany. Too many people think anything growing on the house is bad and they're just wrong.

English ivy - forget it. The thick root things it uses will tear up anything, brick or wood, and it's impossible to maintain and it will spread all over the place. That one is invasive and is probably the one everyone who knows very little about these vines is thinking of when they tell you, "Awk! Don't plant that to grow up the wall of your house!!!"

I have New Dawn and I sure wouldn't plant that up the side of my house. Even if I was willing to get on a ladder to maintain it, I wouldn't want to deal with those killer thorns while on a ladder.

This message was edited Jun 24, 2009 3:45 PM

You can put lattice on the ground upo to the side of the deck. You could plant a "friendly" vine on that. Would look pretty. Or lattice and planters with long vines growing down. That would leave the house with no vines, but vines lower to warm it up.

Hart: I know at least one university in Connecticut that ripped out all the ivy covering its buildings -- beautiful Boston ivy -- because of damage to the stone. I'm sure they wouldn't have done that if they didn't have to.

Mine has grown on brick and wood for, let's see, it would be 45 years now, with no damage whatsoever.

I'll bet it was English ivy. Or some ivyphobe presuming it was damaging the stone.

boy - I'm really confused on this. I just bought boston ivy to cover the rather plain rear of my house and because lots of reputable nurseries like brushwood, and my local nursery( which usually specializes in natives and quality plants) were selling it. I kind of assumed because of this that it was safe over the English Ivy. I'm wondering, does anyone else have any experience with this? It's covered Fenway Park in Boston for decades?

Amalia: knowing where you are in the NC mountains, I don't think tropicals are a good idea. They won't make it. But what would be pretty on the deck in some large planters would be some of the smaller conifers to add interest year round, perhaps on each corner. Some trellises in large pots with shorter climbing roses would be lovely against any blank walls in the summer, with some smaller pots around the base and some dahlias in the pots with the roses to cover the bases of the roses, which can get unsightly. The clematis that someone suggested is another good idea for trellises on blank walls, and the white ones or light pinks would pop against the brick. Just throwing things out here.

Would love to see updated pictures!

You have a nice large deck put some outdoor furniture out there along with an umbrella if it is sunny even some large pots of annuals would really dress it up. The window boxes would look great and you would still have plenty of room. I think they also have brackets that you could attach to the deck rail to hang some hanging pots full of flowers.

The lattice around the bottom open part of the deck would be a good place to plant 2 or 3 clematis. I planted some by some lattice we have and it works great for supporting the plants.

Have fun with it and post some pictures when you are done.