Growing Jasmine Over an Ugly Wall

One of the most challenging aspects of my property is the road frontage where my property meets the road. It’s been such a long saga of a story with the various efforts I've made to try and tidy it up and keep it looking nice. I’m not even going to bore you with the details. Suffice to say, any serious efforts I’ve made to improve the front of my property, including new driveway and retaining walls, etc, have been stymied by cost, logistics and beaurocratic red tape.

Ideally I’d love to pull it all down and start again but the cost of doing so properly has turned out to be astronomical, both financially and in sheer frustration. So I’ve put it in the ‘too hard’ basket which is probably where it will stay.

Having said that, the front of my property remains an 'eye-sore', so I’m determined to at least try something. So I decided to 'Fake it' – to disguise it by covering it up – at least part of it. My initial efforts at doing so haven't worked very well. Some years ago I planted a Star Jasmine vine at the top of the wall hoping it would cover the wall but for some reason it doesn't like growing downwards from the top and didn't spread out very far.

At around the same time my neighbour (who has since moved on) did the same thing covering a concrete wall in front of his place with a vine of Star Jasmine, but with more success than mine. It’s now really well established and is looking pretty good. It’s become my job to keep it well clipped, because that place is now a rental and the gardens tend to get neglected. So I decided to try again with Jasmine. I decided to extend my neighbours more vigorous vine over onto my place, and hopefully cover the entire wall to the top of the driveway.

So after drilling a few holes in the concrete wall I put in some stainless steel screws to anchor a few lengths of galvanised wire to the wall both horizontally and vertically. Then I got a few long shoots that I untangled from the main vine and wound it round the wire on my wall.

Because it’s already a mature vine, I’m sure it won't take long before it takes hold and spreads across the wall. I’ll be interested to see how far I can get the vine to grow as my wall is about 18 metres long to the top of the driveway.

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Update October 2019

With the arrival of Spring, the Star Jasmine has burst into life with a flush of tender new growth. The new shoots are a lovely lime green. My efforts to encourage the vine's spread seem to be working but I can see it will take some time before it covers the wall completely.

Shifting the Bay Tree

Several years ago I acquired a cute potted Bay tree that was clipped in a round pom-pom (topiary) on top of a single standard trunk. At the time I struggled to find a suitable place for it in the garden. As it was only small when I first got it, I thought it would look nice behind my brick BBQ. As it turns out it seemed to really love this position and has grown quite big. Over the years I've kept it clipped in the same cute shape.

However, I came to realise over the last year or so that I'd put it in the wrong place. It had finally outgrown the space I'd given it and I realised something needed to be done.

During that same few years I had a Jacaranda tree growing in a bigger space next to it. I'd hoped that the Jacaranda would become a central feature in my back garden next to the BBQ especially once it matured and produced a canopy of soft lilac flowers. Unfortunately, that never happened! It just never really took off and eventually died. So I pulled it out, removed the stump and was left with a huge hole.

The next step was obvious. Move the Bay tree into the newly created space. After doing a bit of research I realised the best time of year for transplanting larger trees was after the height of summer and into the Autumn when there is less risk of the tree drying out and becoming stressed due to moisture loss.

So I dug a narrow trench around the tree as far away from the trunk as possible, which was difficult in such a confined space. Inevitably, I had to cut through several roots about the thickness of my fingers. Removing a section of the keystone wall helped me get better access. Eventually it came free and I got my wife Marie to help me lift it into its new space.

I added a good amount of home-made compost to the soil and back-filled around it, staking it firmly so it wouldn't lean over. Then I gave it a good watering and clipped it to shape again. I managed to get it all done in time for an end of summer BBQ where it now stands proudly as a new prominent feature in that part of the garden.

All that was needed then was to tidy up around the BBQ and have a few friends around to enjoy the space once again.