Having finally built the trellis, i was now ready to plant something to cover the fence and provide a bit more privacy. I ummed and ahhed for a while about what to grow on the trellis but in the end i decided on Hardenbergia violacea (aka Happy Wanderer, native sarsparilla, purple coral pea etc etc). I was keen to grow something edible however, it would be growing on the southern side of the fence, and would also be shaded from morning and afternoon sun by trees and buildings, so i think most edible climbers like passionfruit, grapes and kiwi fruit would struggle to get established and may not produce much fruit. Also something like a grape would have the problem of being deciduous. I’m also planning to plant something in front of the fence once the vine is established, so that would make maintaining and edible vine very difficult.

I was a bit concerned about our soil as it is a pretty heavy clay and apparently hardenbergias don’t like wet feet. However, i have been improving it with gypsum and organic matter up the back, and i also built a couple of raised planting mounds out of bits and pieces i had lying around, so hopefully they should be OK.

I’ve tied down some of the branches to the wires, and i am going to try and train them sideways as much as possible, otherwise they will just race to the top of the fence leave the lower section bare. I also gave it a good drink with seasol, pruned off some of the straggly growth, and mulched with some newspaper and sugar cane