We want to use edible plants to make a green garage wall and add interest over winter. The base of the wall has large paving stones, which are difficult for us pensioners to move. Any ideas?
It’s worth getting someone to move one or two of those slabs, even if it costs, because you’re going to need a very big container in order for anything to thrive. You won’t be able to plant right at the base of the wall, but you can fashion a raised bed and fill it with compost: otherwise you will have to construct an arch from your nearest bed to the wall and train the plants that way.
And the plants? That elusive evergreen, climbing, edible – when I find it, I’ll let you know. Chocolate vine (Akebia quinata) is a semi-evergreen, twining climber with fragrant purple-brown flowers in spring. If it’s happy, it will produce large, edible sausage-shaped purple fruits. You can also eat the young shoots in spring.
I have a thing for well-trained wall cotoneaster (C. horizontalis). You can’t eat it and it’s common, but it’s cheap, quick-growing and good for bees and birds. Use it as a climbing frame: a dark-flowered nasturtium twining over it could look rather good.
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