Privacy Fence

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to give any feedback on selection/spacing of vines for fencing. I have a large 6'x125' iron black fence. I recently purchased my home and am in the midst of discovering what I have. I do know that I have a ton of perennials against the fence which I love, a ton I am not too crazy about too.
However I do see my neighbors more than I would like to. I like them, they are nice people, but I definitely want to create some privacy for myself and future guests.
I am thinking of planting a dutchman's pipe vine. I think it will create a nice backdrop for the peonies when they bloom in the years to come. I am working on getting some other perennials to keep the show going, but I'll work on that after the fence selection. My question is, how many vines should I plant and how far should I space them out? Thoughts?

First of all, IF I were you, I would build a separate climbing frame that can be dropped forwards from the fence, this is to allow any repair, painting or any work required either from your side or the neighbours.

Remember when you think about climbers, most loose their foliage in winter so the neighbour might not be a hidden as you think.
There are many, many climbers from Perennial to Annual and depending on how good the soil and light exc is, they can spread out and up several feet over a seasn some even much more,
I can list many that you can research BUT I am not sure how cold your winters get, some plants just need a 4-6 inch mulch of compost to help save the plant from frost / freeze. others wont like freeze at all and maybe need planted in container and taken inside after Autumn Pruning, kept JUST damp to save from death.


Clematis, the one that spreads like wildfire, MONTANA white or pink. Theres Hundreds of others to choose from, summer spring, winter flowering ALL colours.

Roses, Ramblers cover a vast area, again hundreds of climbing, all colours repeat flowering, perfumed or single flowering.

Pyracantha, berried, orange, red, yellow, can be fan shape grown, or bushy. very sharp thorns.

Abutilon tender in most places.

Passion flowers,

Magnolia can be trained to spread out along a fence / wall.

Japanese Quince, gives small fruits like little apples makes wonderful jelly / preserves.

Solanum, some places this is tender but grow from seed.

Wisteria, you have to have a good heavy structure for this plant but it is wonderful, grows about 2 feet a year, needs pruning to keep in place.

Climbing Hydrangea is smothered in cream large clusters of flowers, hardy and nice for fast coverings.

There are several fruits that can be fan trained, plumbs, Apples, pears, etc, you need to check for pollination and may require others to give that fruiting.

Hope this can set you thinking about climbers.
Some of your border plants like the spring bulbs will not be seen come summer as they die down, don't remove the greenery till it turns yellow. By allowing the bulbs greenery to naturally die down, this helps feed the underground bulkbs for the following year.
have afun planning your new garden and lets hope you find the plants you need and like.
Kind Regards.
WeeNel.

Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla and others)
is fairly fast growing, and can easily spread 15' + sideways. If there is anything to climb up (like a tree next to the fence) then it will keep going up rather than do much sideways growth.
If there is nothing but fence then some of the energy it would have put into growing upwards will be used to grow sideways, especially at the top of the fence.
End result: Somewhat sparse lower down, dense at about the top 25% of the fence and a bit higher.

Best way to do this:
Plant from gallon cans 8' on center.
Untangle the vines and tie them horizontally as close to the bottom of the fence as you can.
The first couple of years, as they try to grow upwards, redirect and tie them into place so they are well spaced, fanned out and keep directing a certain amount of the branches to grow sideways.
This will help them develop some main branches lower down.

Over the years you might prune them by shearing off anything that is growing away from the fence by perhaps 6"-12". Allow everything closer to the fence to stay. It will become a dense, tangled mat, that will act as a screen even when it is without leaves. Sure, you can see through it. But not as easily as if there was not any vine at all.

WeeNel sure has a point about fence maintenance. Won't be possible once the vine takes over, so check the fence over very carefully, brush or acid wash all the rust spots and paint.

Thanks for the input. I'm in zone 5b and I did think about building a secondary fence but instead I just might repaint with rust prohibitive paint before planting. There are no trees and my neighbors don't even have plants. All there is is fence so I'll work on training it to go sideways. The fence is in good condition now. The annuals are tempting though especially if o can get 50 foot covered. I'm not worried about being exposed in winter, since neither of us are out there in winter.

You could sure do both. Annuals are only going to be there in the summer, but grow really fast. Instant screen. There are a few vining annuals, but I would go with tall ones like hollyhock, cosmos, sunflowers and similar plants.
Plant the Aristolochia on the fence. It is fast, but probably won't be a dense screen for a couple of years.