Sideyard Privacy Trellis Project - done!

Yippee!  The privacy trellis project is complete!  Red and I finished it several days ago, but I've just been too busy to pull a blog post together.  I am several posts behind... Spring is busy.  That's my only excuse...

We got the trellis wires strung, the plants planted, the weeds pulled, and the mulch spread.  I even planted a packet of seeds that were touted to be a "shady mix"  that I had on hand from last year.  I am so pleased with how it all turned out!   For your viewing pleasure...

Here is the path leading out of my pedestrian gate, towards the street:

In the far left of the photo you can see the Amaranth at the base of the tree -- planted by someone before me.  A bit further on you can see one of the 5 Yew shrubs that I planted last fall.  Bright green tips tell me that it's really happy - all 5 are growing really well.  Yay!  And on the right are the yellow and white iris from my friend over in Tarrant County.  They have done their blooming for the season.  And then those 2 little bumps of green sticking up along the curb are the passion flower vines, before they were spread out and twist tied to the wires.

And here is the view of the path a little further on, (taken a few days later) still walking towards the street:

Isn't it a pretty little walkway?  In the forefront of that photo you can see the backside of the trellis with the purple passion vine on it - here is a photo of the front side - standing in my neighbor's driveway:

In this photo you can see that I've spread the vines out, and twist tied the first tendrils to the wires.  It is already starting to reach up to the next wires!  By design, you can't see the wires, but they are every six inches, all the way to the tops of the poles.  The vines also have the added (immediate) benefit of shielding my air conditioner from view.  An unanticipated bonus for everyone...

And then as you are facing that trellis, to your left is the honeysuckle trellis:

That is all one big plant - it is over 5 feet tall.  It is a little sad looking in this photo, (and the lighting doesn't help any) but it is starting to perk up.  I called the nursery, and I think in my attempts to really pamper it, I over watered it.  They advised to back off on the watering, and if it doesn't come back, they said they will replace it.  (But I bought their last yellow honeysuckle, so I'm not sure exactly what would happen.  Hopefully we won't have to find out, because I really don't want to have to un-trellis it and dig it up!)

My neighbors whose driveway runs alongside this said they liked the new look, and among other things that it looks like a "secret garden."  That's exactly what I was going for - a path to a secret space.  Wasn't that kind of them?  I really am glad they like it, because they drive past it several times a day.

It feels good to have stepped up this side of my house.  Other than adding rain barrels and planting the yew last year, I really hadn't done much over here in the nearly 3 years that I have been in the house.  I still want to add these - in an amber color, back in the corner; they will address some feng shui deficiences by adding some light:

Photo/idea credit: http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/glowing-orbs/

So now I'll pamper these little vines -- hand water with rain water, and feed them, and help them reach for the next rungs of wire... and wait for the butterflies to arrive.