put up a trellis and plant somthing more useful the vine will wrap
around the trellis build the trellis off the wall a bit with some
stock treated lumber or somthing so that air can flow between the wall
and trellis this wil help keep down heat.
Do you like grapes great plant those they do well in zone 5
plant a few types they lend shade beauty and a useful fruit that you
can give to family friends or just to increase birds in your yard if
not that then a lovely vine is nice too roses are great and the
foliage dies in the winter so that you don't block the warming sun in
the winter. I like son juan my self or josephs coat
and then you have lovely roses just be sure to attend to pruning
anything you put up and you should do well dont' let anything climb
directly on the wall it does do dammage and i hate to try to power
wash off those damn tracks they leave up the wall when you pull offf
the vines

if the space you mount trellises to is wide then make sure to leave a
little space between peices so you can have some access behind them
for any possible pruning or other needs
have fun with a new verticle garden dont' be afraid of new things
my vote is on the grapes i love them and can never get enough i know
some one who will ship very nice vines for cheap too if you like email
me and i'l give her info to her she's down in Ga thogh
and i'm in pa

good luck :-)


On Mon, 03 May 2004 14:57:02 GMT, kevins_news2
wrote:

The west brick wall on my house becomes a huge heatsink in summer
afternoons. Once the sun comes over the house, that wall gets full
sun until the great ball of fire goes below the horizon. No trees or
shade or anything to block it. So the wall continues to be hot to the
touch well into the middle of the night. That side of the house does
stay warmer than the rest.

The house is only a year old so it's not time for major rennovations
and additional insulation. But i thought that planting some sort of
leafy vine to cover that wall would cut down on the heat penetrating
into the bricks. I'm in Ontario Canada (zone 5). The most
suggested vines at local nurseries are virginia creeper and boston
ivy. I was justa bout to plan a couple of these along the back wall
of my house but now i'm not too sure after reading some of the vine
eradication posts.

1. Do these vines ruin brick walls? They're supposed to cement
themselves naturally to the wall. Does this damage the wall or not?
I've heard conflicting opinions.

2. Are these vines difficult to control? I naievely assumed that the
vines would have only one entry into the ground (the original plant)
and all i would have to deal with is the climbing vines. I never
considered underground offshoots. Will it spread by roots or only the
climbers?

3. I still think this is a good way to control the sun penetrating
into the brick. But is there anything else i should be aware of
before planting these vines?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Kevin