Plants for covering walls: 12 ways to conceal boundaries

With the right plants for covering walls, it’s easy to brighten up a bland wall or conceal an unsightly boundary. Dense evergreen climbers or deciduous choices that retain good structure over winter are ideal. As well as hiding the wall you don’t want to see, they will make the garden seem bigger by concealing the boundary with a leafy or twiggy curtain. 

If you love wildlife, these substantial climbers are one of the best things to plant in the garden. The wall of leafy greenery provides birds with shelter and nesting sites, in turn filling your backyard with song. And many – including ivy – also offer birds berries, as well as producing a rich supply of nectar for pollinators (such as bees) when they flower. 

Get one of these gorgeous climbers in the ground and look forward to it coating your retaining walls with a verdant curtain that will be alive with birdsong in no time. 

There are plants for covering walls that cling to walls themselves (such as hydrangea), as well as those that like something to twine around (for example, clematis), and some that require you to tie them in (for instance, roses). 

Aside from pruning to keep them neat and healthy, they are mostly easy fuss-free plants to grow, and the wildlife benefits they deliver are fabulous.  

By Teresa Conway