"zippo4" wrote in message
...

Hi
I've just moved into our new house and for the first time ever I have a
garden. Which is nice.
The garden is about 70 feet long and 30 feet wide, faces west (so gets
the sun from around 11 right through to sunset) and is mainly grass at
the moment. The lawn gets quite waterlogged due to a stream that runs
along the bottom of the garden.
The previous owner erected the mother of all sheds and whilst I can
admire it as an architectural marvel to rival the new Wembley stadium
it does look a little 'brutal'. I am keen to soften the edges of the
shed (which is roughly 12' x 8') and have already put up some trellis
which I intend to use to train some sort of climbing plant up. And
therein lies my problem. I know next to nothing about plants or
gardening and would therefore really appreciate some advice.
Can anyone suggest a good mixture of climbing plants and or border
shrubs (I think I've got those terms correct??) that will offer the
following

1. Will soften the look of the shed.
2. Will provide year round colour/interest.
3. Will be fragrant?
4. Will attract insects/wildlife.
5. Will be colourful (I like colour!!)

Any suggestions/advice gratefully received

Cheers

Before you attach anything I want to warn you. If the shed is wood, you
will need to be able to get to the wood to treat with timber treatment every
couple of years so make sure that the trelliss is removable and whatever you
plant will not suffer from being detatched while on the trellis and placed
on the ground while you do what you need to do.
Depending what sort of thing you like to see growing, I have japanese ivy
over a pergola. It is very vigourous indeed, no flowers to speak of but the
leaves turn a glorious red this time of year. Perhaps you could intersperse
it with some kind of clematis?