Climbers to dress up Colorbond fence

[royq]

Easy little project at my brother-in-law's place a couple of weeks ago. Took about 5 hours and cost less than $100. Really makes a difference.

The fence is all you can see from one of the bedroom windows, so it needed something to make it less bland. However the fence is very close to the house so we wanted to do something that wouldn't take up too much space.

I made a quick video with a time lapse camera just for fun

BeforeAfter

Thanks for checking this out, happy workshopping.

Cheers, Roy

[topper]

Random question to whoever has the knowledge, would/could you do this with Passionfruit?

[EricL]

Hello @topper

That is an excellent question. I know for a fact that passion fruit thrives on direct sunlight and heat, but I believe too much heat is bad for them. It will literally cook the plant and cause too much dehydration. Some of the questions that need to be addressed are. 

• Does your fence get sunlight all day?
• Does your fence produce too much heat? (It's so hot you can't touch it.) 
• What kind of soil do you have at the bottom of your fence? 

My number one tip is to make sure that the planting bed is prepared with good soil. Passion fruit plants enjoy good watering, but will not tolerate water-logged soil, make sure you have good drainage. If the conditions are favorable, you should be able to make it work.

Here is a handy guide: How to grow and care for passion fruit

Let me tag our experienced members @Noelle and @Adam_W for their recommendations.

If you need more advice or information, please let us know.

Eric

[topper]

Thanks mate. I have a poor excuse growing on an even poorer excuse of lattice. It's produced a couple of bits of fruit that never ripened.. or I missed it. Long story short, it looks horrible I was hoping this might look a lot better and I want to say pretty much all day sun. I might have to monitor that and check the fence.

Thank you for the advice.

[Noelle]

Hi @topper 

As Eric has said, passionfruit like full sun but their roots prefer cool soil, so sun on the top and a well mulched soil to retain moisture and reduce overheating will prove best. Good rich soil - lots of well composted sheep and/or cow manure and other compost - and ample water over summer are optimal.

When the vine flowers, you might need to hand pollinate (take an anther with pollen from one flower and brush the pollen on the central style of another flower) in order to get fruit, particularly if bees and other natural pollinating insects are in short supply.

[JoandHenry]

Hi Roy. This is looking exactly what we are wanting. Can I please ask what Cables you used / what they are called?  I have looked through the Bunnings website but can't find them.  I'm new to landscaping and learning. so forgive me if a silly question. A list of your materials (exact products) would be so helpful. Thanks so much.

We have a 19.m by 2.5m high colourbond fence to cover! It has an extension the neighbours put up. The fence faces all our living / dining area and bedrooms so wanting to add something like Ivy and create a giant wall of green. 

[EricL]

Hi @JoandHenry

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fabulous to have you join us, and thank you for joining the discussion.

It's great that this project has inspired you to build your own climbing assembly for plants. Let me tag @royq to make him aware of your question. In our earlier posts, a lot of our members used Galvanized Wire thickness ranging from 1mm + up to 1.6mm my colleague @MitchellMc uses Whites 1.60mm x 15m Stainless Steel 304 Grade Tie Wire. Because it is stainless steel, it will not corrode.

I recommend using Buildex Metal C4 HexHead No Seal Tek Screws 10g x 16 mm or similar to fix the wires to your fence. 

If you have any more questions about this project, please don't hesitate to post them.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[JoandHenry]

Thanks very much for this information Eric. Very helpful. 

[MitchellMc]

Reach out if you need further assistance @JoandHenry. We're here to help.

Mitchell

[Kell-at-home]

Hi, I'm an inexperienced but determined DYI-er, wondering what tools you used and what you attached the wire to the fence with?

It looks fantastic, easy to install and exactly what I am looking for from a budget and time perspective.

Cheers Kell

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community Kell (@Kell-at-home). It's tremendous to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about this amazing project.

The best bit about these guidelines is that they're super simple to install. You need a drill, nut setter bit and Tek screws. The screws self-tap their way into the steel when you drill. Once you've installed them at the correct pattern locations, your wire is wrapped around their heads.

If you haven't read through it, there's a fair bit of discussion about the nuances involved in this thread, but please do let me know if you have further questions.

Mitchell