Urban gardeners often use screens, hedges for privacy

By Tony Tomeo

The Santa Clara Valley is a great place to enjoy gardening. However, because most of us live in urban areas, it is often necessary to use fences, hedges or screens, sometimes to the detriment of the desired appearance of the garden. Fortunately, there are many landscaping techniques available to accommodate the need for privacy or to separate gardens of various styles.

If used properly, these techniques can be used to the advantage rather than the detriment of your garden. Of course, when planting on the perimeter of a property, it is very important to discuss options with adjacent neighbors, so that the final choices will be beneficial to everyone involved.

Because informal screens or dense shrubbery can involve considerable area, they are not practical for small yards. In such yards, well behaved vines may be used to cover perimeter fences. When using vines, it is very important to know exactly how your particular choices will perform.

Some vines, such as bougainvillea, do not climb on their own and need to be tied to trellises or hooks on the fence. Such vines are actually most desirable, because it is unlikely they will bother the neighbors. Vines like star jasmine climb trellises well, but require slight pruning to prevent invasion into neighboring gardens. Unfortunately, the best climbers, such as creeping fig or Boston ivy, are too damaging to fences and should only be used on unpainted concrete or brick walls.

If your side of the fence is a flat surface, simply use duplex nails, wrapping the string around the nails, between the heads. Either way, drive nails into runners and only far enough to hold the string. You can use wire to support light vines, like morning glory, or use string, as I do in my garden, where we plant string beans, peas and cucumbers. Although the trellis is bare all winter, we plant the vegetable in time to cover all but the north-facing fence for summer.

Many shrubs and trees can also be trained on sturdy fences or trellises in the form of "espaliers." The procedure involves strict pruning (never shearing) and binding of stems to the framework of choice. Espaliered ornamentals require as much maintenance as vines and do not usually cover as well; but they are more useful for free-standing trellises that divide areas without the use of a fence. Espaliers can also utilize trees, such as dwarf apples or pears, that would otherwise occupy larger spaces in the landscape. Again, it is important to be familiar with the species to be used. Not all woody ornamentals are conducive to this procedure and would present more problems than they are worth.

Fern pine is a classic example of an uncooperative tree that is often sold, already espaliered, at various home improvement centers, but ultimately becomes a plain sheared cube.

Hedges can be used either in front of a fence or standing free; formal or informal. Although no longer a common practice, "pleached" hedges are composed of small sheared trees on uniform trunks of any desired height. If planting an informal hedge, select shrubs that will get as high as needed, but not too high. Maintenance will be minimized if the natural form of your hedge matches the desired form.

Formal sheared hedges require much more maintenance, but if used properly, can provide bold symmetry to a garden. When planting a hedge or replacing individual shrubs in an established one, it is imperative to use plants of the same species and cultivar. Everyone knows the Japanese boxwood so commonly used in the 1950s; but when new plants are needed, it is often confused with the modern cultivar of the same species known as "Green Beauty." This alternate cultivar, which exhibits deeper green foliage and slower growth, would give an established hedge an unkempt, two-toned appearance.

Because the trunks of shrubs are visible, it is advisable to plant them with uniform spacing. It is also advisable to shear hedges so that the sides lean slightly inward, particularly on the north side, to maximize sun exposure.

Perennial of the Week: Calla

Calla, Zantedeschia aethiopica, also known as calla lily, has naturalized itself around creeks and ponds on the San Mateo County coast around Montara where it was once grown for commercial cut-flower production. If they can survive in the wild this long, the can easily survive in even the most neglected gardens. They grow in almost any soil and require no fertilizer. They even grow in soggy soil.

Flowers are six-inch-long funnel shaped spathes of pure white wrapped around a yellow spadix, which contains the true flowers. The flowers are supported by three-foot-long stems and are produced mostly in spring and early summer. The spongy, two-foot-long leaves are arrowhead-shaped and about eight inches wide, growing upright from basal clumps. The plants may be purchased as dormant tubers through spring, or they can be found already growing as canned stock in nurseries from spring through summer. There are both dwarf varieties and large varieties, including "Green Goddess," which is very robust and produces white flowers with wide green bands around the tips. Various species of callas also vary in size, flower color and leaf form. Many have spotted leaves. Callas and their variations are commonly available in nurseries and garden centers.

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Horticulturist Tony Tomeo can be contacted at 358-2574.

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