Need gardening expertise!

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kevbc03

Piranha
MFK Member
Oct 12, 2008
1,497
39
81
Cleveland
Hey fellow MFKers,
I would like some suggestions/advice/expertise regarding a fence.
My girlfriend and I recently moved into a house together on the border of a rural/suburb area of Cleveland.
Our backyard property has about an acre of land. We have a 4-5 foot tall square fence that encloses a portion of the backyard.

We would like to add some coverage along the 2 sides of the fence-line facing our neighbors houses (One on each side of the house).
What I was originally thinking was to plant some arborvitaes along the 2 sides of the fence-line, spanning about 20 feet across. However, this will get costly.
Then we came up with the idea of growing perennial climbing vines along the fence. Obviously vines are invasive, but we are up for the trimming.

The area we live in is derived from zones 5 and 6.
We came up with 3 vines that COULD theoretically work...
  1. Golden Hops
  2. Wisteria
  3. Sweet Autumn Clematis
Please and thank you for any thoughts or suggestions. Or if you know any other vines that would work more efficiently please feel free to share.
 
I forgot to mention the fence is comprised of metal, vertical bars that are about 5 inches from bar to bar.
 
It looks very similar to this:

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I have both wisteria and clematis, both are viable options but will take a while to take off so you'd need several to cover the fence quick enough.
If I were you I'd go for Aristolochia Macrophylla. Native to the US, grows very quickly and has huge leaves so will do a good job of covering the fence.

Edit: Parthenocissus quinquefolia would be possible, too. It grows insanely fast, however it's very invasive since it climbs with suction cups and they can permanently damage the paint on your fence.
 
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