Monday, May 4, 2009

How to Use Vines in Your Garden for Almost Anything

By Laura Whitston

If you have a fence that is standing out in your lush garden, growing a vine over it can be a beautiful, not to mention quick solution to your problem. Vines are a great, low maintenance way to decorate your garden, and they look great almost anywhere! Whatever your needs are, there is a vine to fulfil every need.

There are many different ground vines available, that grow fast and strong, inching along the ground. They are very easily directed, so they can make a border around your garden, or just weave through the plants. These are a great alternative to grass, and some varieties are resilient enough to survive being stepped on. Some will even survive dogs!

While "twining" vines are a bit harder to direct at first, they are to a fence or wall what ground vine is to the floor. This type of vines will latch on and loop around any porous surfaces around it, such as a wooden lattice or other similar type of fence using small tendrils, and once grown, require almost no care.

Ivy is a vine that nearly everyone is used to seeing. It is this way because Ivy is one of the most adaptable and resilient types of vines growing, and it can grow pretty much anywhere. Ivy is great to use for ground cover, and it will also grow up any wall you put it near. Over the years, however, people have found that buildings covered in Ivy have been deteriorating because of it.

If you are looking for a natural way to improve the architecture of your home, or simply want to go green, vines are the way to go! A great way is with Virginia Creeper, a "twining" vine that can grow up a wall of any home in a matter of months. Make sure to keep your eye on it, though; while it looks great when its where you want it, it can very easily take over your home.

Make sure before you buy a vine that you look into the good and the bad qualities it possesses, and that you know whether the vine you are buying will suit the application for which you want to use it. No matter what it is you want to do with them, there is a vine for almost any situation that you wish to address around your home.

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