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Landscaping a Fence

Create a pathway for your vines with a super-easy wire trellis.

From "The Dirt On..."
episode DTDO-117

You can easily boost the visual appeal of a boring old fence by landscaping it with a wire trellis for beautiful climbing vines. This is a simple project with big impact for a small amount of cash.

Host Ahmed Hassan explains how — with some screws and wire — you can quickly and easily create a trellis.

Materials

tape measure
chalk or a pencil
nails, screws or poultry staples
thin, stainless-steel wire, preferably 18-gauge or better
wire cutters
tree tape
vines

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

Mark the fence. Before hammering, draw your trellis blueprint. Make marks with chalk on each fence post where your nails will go. Measure five inches down from the top of the fence post and make a mark. Measure eight inches down from that, making another mark, and keep doing this every eight inches until you reach about eight inches up from the bottom of the fence. If you don't have fence posts, make these marks about every seven or eight feet.

Hammer in nails. Place nails or screws in the areas you've marked with chalk (figure A), but don't hammer them all the way in. Leave enough room to wrap wire around each nail. If your fence is stucco, brick or concrete, use molly bolts or anchoring screws.

Wrap wire around nails. Start on one end of your fence and wrap wire around the first nail (figure B), securing the end by tying it off. Bring this wire straight across to the nail at the next fence post and loop it around. Be consistent with the way you wrap the wire around each nail. Either wrap all of them starting over the top or wrap all of them starting from underneath so it looks consistent down the line. This should create a straight line. Continue on to each fence post after looping the wire around a few times until you reach the end of the fence. Tie it off at the end and start a new line of wire at the next nail.

Plant your vine. Plant a vine between each of the fence posts. Remove any stake that may have come with the plant, and thread the vine through the wires. Place it behind the bottom wire, in front of the one above that, etc. Secure it to the wire with green tree tape (figure C), a stretchy material that is available at garden centers. Tie it pretty loose so the plant has room to grow. As the vine grows, keep threading it through the higher lines of wire.

For this project, Ahmed uses Hardenbergia violacea which climbs 12 to 16 feet and grows in either sun or shade. Other vines you could use: bougainvillea, trumpet vine, morning glory and ivy.