Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. After reading more on here and talking to others, I think Cats' Claw is what I'm going to go with on the back wall. I'm planning on planting it on the ledge where you can see some of the round bushes and ocatillos. A few follow-up questions: 1.How far down do the roots grow? 2. Will they be able to go under the footing of the smaller (3-4') wall in front? I have a pool going in there this year. 3. Are the roots strong enough to cause problems with a pool? 4. Will they even be able to travel that far? 5. Can you control where Cat Claw grows? I want it to just grow up the wall, not OUT horizontally over the rocks. 6. How far apart should I space them 7. What size should I buy? 1 gallon? 5 gallon? Thanks again! This post was edited by anthemaz on Sat, Apr 6, 13 at 15:09

Imagine the gigantic aggregate surface area of concrete block or brick garden walls for a typical city comprising maybe 130,000 dwellings with maybe 60% each having perimeter garden walls maybe 1,5 meters high. its a significant problem here in the desert southwest of the United States where night time temperatures between sunset and 3 or 4 in the morning can remain around 38C. and higher between May and October, This heat island effect along with concrete sidewalks and suburban streets designed for car convenience is killing the most drought-tolerant tree species and the iconic sajuaro cacti. We are planting cat’s claw vines against our yard walls to drop the radiant heat to less fatal levels. Planning ordinances which require brick ir block walls to remain untouched were created by people ignorant of the radiant heat problems of brick ir block walks exposed to direct sun.

There are quite a number of wonderful perennial vines that grow in NH. (I am assuming that the NH in your user name indicates location, but if not these may not be good suggestions.) Some of the non-invasive honeysuckles include Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), European honeysuckle (L. periclymenum) and a couple of hybrids, Goldflame and Mandarin. Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' last week There's a wide range of clematis available in sizes ranging from just a few feet to 15 feet or more, and they come in shades of purple, pink, reddish, and white. Clematis Mikelite late June Clematis Gravetye Beauty early July Clematis Prince Charles early July Clematis Venosa Violacea early July Clematis HF Young early June Clematis Ville de Lyon mid June The native pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla) is mostly a foliage plant, with large heart-shaped leaves and pipe-shaped flowers tucked into the foliage. It provides food for one of the types of swallowtail butterflies. Another vine that can be grown for foliage is hops, Humulus lupulus, which is another really large plant. Besides the various green forms that provide the hops for brewing and their ornamental value, there is a gold-leafed form. There's a great photo of mature hops vines in this thread. Climbing Hydrangea will grow in part to full shade and has white flowers in June. It gets to 20' or more if untrimmed and needs a surface to climb such as a masonry wall or tree trunk so I don't think would work for your chain link. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) isn't great for a small garden as it is a large, vigorous plant, but is good for a woodland edge where it produces fruit for birds and has crimson fall foliage. It can be grown successfully on chain link fencing also. If you are interested in edible fruit, in addition to grapes, hardy kiwi vines produce clusters of grape-sized smooth fruit that taste just like tropical kiwis, but without the fuzzy coat. Both Kiwi and grapes will produce best with proper training. There are also various annual vines such as scarlet runner beans, sweet peas, and black-eyed Susan vines (Thunbergia) that you can plant between the perennial vines for a season or two while you wait for the perennial vines to get some size. Unless you have a really narrow area, you might also want to consider shrubs planted close enough to the fence so that some of the branches grow through the fence to help hide it. Hydrangea paniculata such as Limelight, Quickfire, or Vanilla Strawberry might work for this if the area is at least 7' wide.

Is "9" your Sunset Zone? What type of fence/wall is it, and how high? What is the size and material are the planned container(s)? It is the container that will make it trickier for plants to thrive in the hot conditions. Is there a reason that you cannot instead use wire between the attachments that would hold up the proposed string? I have both vines and espaliered Grewia occidentalis (Lavender Starflower) shrubs along 5' high and 7' high block walls, as well as along a section of our house exterior. I'm a big fan of the Grewia, for a whole host of reasons. We inserted some screws into the blocks/stucco, then used a strand of wire to span the distance between (3 strands for the 7' wall; the house wall Grewia has only one wire strand holding up the 10' espalier, and for the first 8' of growth it didn't even have that--it just leaned against the wall! lol). There are also attachments you can glue to walls that can support the strands.