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Additional Coverage for a Bamboo Fence

8 years ago

I recently put up a bamboo fence in my backyard and I am perfectly happy with it in the daytime, but at night, I can see lights right through it. You can see in the picture. To remedy this, I would like to find a plant that will grow on the fence and provide additional cover at night and look nicer during the day. The picture shows that I only have about 1-2 feet in front of the fence depending on the section. I have considered putting in climbing hydrangea and climbing roses, and possibly alternating them. I have a few concerns:

1) How well will they wrap around and climb up the bamboo fencing.

2) Will they cause damage to the fencing so that if they come off one day, the fence will look worse for it - which is why ivy is out.

3) Will they help provide fuller coverage so that I'm not seeing right through it at night, even in the winter when the leaves are reduced.

An alternative I'm considering is to ask my neighbor if I can simply plan evergreen bushes behind the fence. Has anybody experienced using climbing plants along with a bamboo fence?

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Comments (4)

mersiepoo
8 years ago
That's a beautiful fence! We have neighbors from heck and I put up a bamboo fence on the gate as they would routinely look down our drive to see if we were home.
A few possible solutions might be (depending on your situation) to (inside your fence) reinforce the bamboo by adding lumber as a backing so that it'll block out the light (but it won't look as pretty obviously). If you can find thinner bamboo you can bundle them together and then add them to block out more light. Rhamnus (sea buckthorn) may work though I don't know if that's ever green or not.
Jeff W
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I got climbing roses and hydrangea, but decided that those would not cut it for this purpose since they would provide minimal coverage during winter. I also got some straw bamboo to add coverage behind the fence, but the straw bamboo is useless. I plan to use it as a trellis rather than as any kind of fence. I'm fairly certain that is the only use for straw bamboo other than building chicken pens and cheaply identifying the boundary between the beach and a beach house.

I decided to put golden euonymus in front of the fence, and I may either put a trellis behind it for it to climb up, or simply train it to go up the fence. The good thing is that euonymus is one of the few evergreen scrubs with a reasonable ability to climb. It will require trimming and training, but that would go for any scrub in this situation. I am interested in finding what alternative evergreen options there are for this situation. Holly seems to be another options, but euonymus seems to be ideal for additional fence coverage. In fact, it sounds like euonymus and a trellis could constitute a fence in itself.
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This is a long thread I just stumbled upon so I didn't do my due diligence and read through all the comments to see if my recommendation was already suggested so please forgive me if it was. I would plant 'American Pillar' Arborvitae along the entire fence line and give it a couple of years. It's cheap (I found them for $7.50 a pop for an order of 100 plants last year), narrow (3-foot at base when mature), tall (30-foot max), fast (3-foot per year, once established), densely evergreen (no see through branches), cold hardy (to zone 3), disease free and long lived (no known problems with a lifespan of it's ancestors measured in centuries). What more can one ask for? Here is a link that might be useful: American Pillar Arborvitae
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I like the lady banks and have seriously considered it, but I was under the impression from alot of other posts that it gets very heavy. I'm not opposed to taking an electric hedge trimmer to it once a month either though if that's enough to keep it in check, but i don't want to shell out too much for a super-strong trellis. that's why i was thinking more along the lines of morning glorys as they get thick but they don't get woody and heavy. or maybe this doesn't matter? I'm really not sure just how sturdy my trellis would need to be, but I don't want to have to rebuild it every few seasons either. Also, i forgot to mention that the vines would be planted on the east side of the fence, so the roots will be protected in shade all day.
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Kudzu, you're not misunderstanding this at all. Perhaps there is no solution from a planting standpoint -- it has confused us for an entire year. Planting on our side would be a fine option, except that we have had some trouble with people jumping the wall (it's actually a neighborhood community access lake lot, not a residential lot). My goal is to block visibility AND foot traffic. The lot tends to be a great hangout for teenagers after dark... And, our house is built up a little bit, so anyone on the lot can see us when we're on our back porch. The brick wall is very nice, so i was hoping not to block it using plants. Maybe there's something with a higher canopy that we could trim up to 6' and let grow taller?
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mersiepoo
8 years ago
There may be some thujas that may fit back there, not Green Giant of course, but there are some cultivars that don't get quite as huge as GG does. Good luck with whatever plants you go with, hope the Euonymus works out!
PRO
California Fence Company
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Nice one. You can use thin bamboo stick or wood to block the light. It will definitely solve your problem.

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