Garden wall - paint & trellis

sillysocks

I've decided that with the summer coming its finally time to get my garden in order (having moved in a year ago!).... we have a corner garden so have two sections of wall, both are just made of grey concrete blocks, about 8 blocks high and quite long.

To start with I'm hoping to paint the walls and then put up some kind of trellis that I could train some climbing plants on (something like this http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=20001&langId=-1&catalogId=10701&productId=1500006859).

I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestion as to the best type of paint for concrete garden walls? I don't want to end up with them needing to be done again in 6 months time! Is there any specific preparation i'd need to do on the walls before painting them?

Also, for the trellis, what would be the best way of getting this attached to the wall? I'd imagine that hammering nails into concrete blocks isn't an easy task?

Reyman

The link doesn't work I'm afraid!

sillysocks

Reyman wrote:

The link doesn't work I'm afraid!

Hmm dunno why that stopped working! Anyway this is kinda the same idea...
http://www.listerstimber.co.uk/_images/products/trellis/squareTrellis.jpg

Maybe even a bit lighter than that. But just plain-ish light wooden squares. Nothing too expensive!

Reyman

A few simple rules:

1. Use as heavy a trellis as you can afford. Anything lght will fall apart once there's any weight on it. A waste of time
2. Mount the trellis on rough timber battens fixed to the wall - I use 3"x2" in 4' lengths for a really good job. The advantage of this is that the plants are kept a few inches away from the wall are easier to train and grow better
3. Mount the battens using non rust screws and plugs (hard work I know). Some of the guys here use nail guns and I'm sure they're easier but I've never tried them.
4. Treat all the wood with plant friendly preservative before you mount it -- remember you won't be able to get near it again once the plants grow

sillysocks

Reyman wrote:

A few simple rules:

1. Use as heavy a trellis as you can afford. Anything lght will fall apart once there's any weight on it. A waste of time
2. Mount the trellis on rough timber battens fixed to the wall - I use 3"x2" in 4' lengths for a really good job. The advantage of this is that the plants are kept a few inches away from the wall are easier to train and grow better
3. Mount the battens using non rust screws and plugs (hard work I know). Some of the guys here use nail guns and I'm sure they're easier but I've never tried them.
4. Treat all the wood with plant friendly preservative before you mount it -- remember you won't be able to get near it again once the plants grow

All very good points reyman..... hadn't really thought about the weight of plants affecting the trellis - was thinking it was more for cosmetic reasons that you'd get the heavier stuff.
What do you think of the plastic trellis - would that be useless altogether?

Just trying to keep the costs down a bit, have quite a lot of wall to cover, never mind the cost of the paint , plants etc - plus the shed needs to be replaced as well!

city girl

Doing the same job myself at the moment. Used the remainder of the external masonry paint on the walls.... never again. The walls are unrendered block and took ages to cover and drank paint... next time I will use limebased whitewash, which will be cheaper, go on more easily and have a kind of rough-hewn appeal. I bought good quality pre-treated trellis because I want it to last and not to have to do it again next year. The plastic stuff wouldnt be good, I dont think, a false economy. I am going to fit my trellis on top of the wall securing it at either end to side walls and at intervals along its length with wood battens and also metal fencing brackets where one trellis panel ends and the next begins. For extra security if needed I have also bought cable ties and a roll of garden wire, which will always be useful even if I dont end up using for this job. Good Luck!

sillysocks

Thanks..... will have to look into the trellis thing again I think! Must measure up the walls fully and then get prices for better quality stuff. Are homebase and the likes ok for getting the trellis in or are there better/cheaper places to get it from?

Citygirl, For the painting I reckon our walls are just unrendered block as well - they look like nothing has been done to them in the 10 years the house is built! Would I get that whitewash in regular DIY shop? I was also going to try masonary paint because I wanted to put a 'nice' colour on it, but don't fancy having to do layer upon layer because as I've said there's a lot of wall to cover! Does anyone have any suggestion as to how we could paint them with a colour without having to do multiple layers?

Reyman

Again if you use anything other than good masonry paint it will start to peel off in a couple of years. You then can't get at it to scrape it off and re-paint it .
It will look terrible I'm afraid.

Get a good quality paint like Sandtex - two coats will be enough even on bare blocks. Remember there's no short cuts to a good job - Sandtex will be fine for 10 years.

As for plastic trellis -- please -- no way!

miles teg

I'd recommend not painting your walls at all... you'll always have to repaint it every year or 2 if you want to maintain it to a decent level.
Given you're putting trellises up, would you not consider just covering the walls with creepers etc. ?

sillysocks

Oh yeah I dont mind doing two coats of the paint.... i was thinking that if the paint was just seeping into the blocks it'd be more than that but two layers is fine. Will have a look for the sandtex at the weekend. Will probably only be the house another few years so once the paint will last almost that long that'd be great.

I want to paint the walls because we probably wont have plants over the whole area of the walls so the parts that are showing I don't want to just have as bare blocks.

Someone has suggested to me that I could just use wire to train the plants up the walls instead of bothering with trellis.... any opinions on that? I suppose once the plants start to grow you wont' know if its trellis or not anyway, and i assume wire would be much easier to get up on the walls than trellis?

miles teg

I have trellises in my garden but still use wire (and also garden twine) to direct the plants. If you don't have trellises in place though, you'll be hammering nails in every so often. Much easier in the long run to just tie wire/twine to existing trellises... makes covering up the grey blocks much easier

sillysocks

Thanks all for the suggestions - plans have been put on hold for this week cause weather isn't looking too good for the weekend, so probably not a good idea to paint ! Not sure what we're going to do about the trellis thing for definite but going to paint first when weather allows and take if from there.

Lumbarda

We had the same problem, 14 metres of grey unrendered concrete block wall down our garden so we painted it the same colour as the masonry and covered the bulk of the wall with reed screening that we got in Homebase. It looks great - better even than we were expecting! We've planted climbers that will grow on wires on the screening so it gives a very natural look to the garden. It also meant we didn't have to paint all of the wall, just the top row of blocks above the screening which was good as the unrendered wall does drink paint as a previous poster mentioned. Having said that, we applied 2 coats of Woodies masonry paint and that was enough for a good cover, we've only just done it so can't say yet how long it will last! We fixed the screening with masonry nails into the cement part of the wall and it's holding so far.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do anyway!

sillysocks

Lumbarda wrote:

We had the same problem, 14 metres of grey unrendered concrete block wall down our garden so we painted it the same colour as the masonry and covered the bulk of the wall with reed screening that we got in Homebase. It looks great - better even than we were expecting!

Sounds like a great idea as well..... decisions decisions. Think I'll head to the local Homebase/garden centre later today or tomorrow and see what takes my fancy there.

looksee

If you are going to grow anything more substantial than a summer flowering clematis up the wall, dont use trellis. Honeysuckle, passion flower, clematis montana (the gorgeous pink one thats in flower at the moment), and several others would be much better growing on wires, they will just pull down trellis. Hammer masonry nails into the wall leaving a good bit sticking out, and put wire between them going from about 2ft from ground level to the top of the wall at about 12" intervals. Try and have the wire about a couple of inches from the wall (go from pillar to pillar if you can.) Ivy (shudder), any of the Boston Ivy (which is not ivy) and Virginia Creeper types do not need support.

game4it70

hi.
dulux weathershield is by far the best ext. paint out there. appox 43 for a bucket(10lts).
water down the first coat with a litte bit less than 10 percent.
second coat use it pure.
and i would recommend a 3rd coat if u where stayin in the house longer.

this will last years and far better than santex.
regards keith.

sillysocks

game4it70 wrote:

hi.
dulux weathershield is by far the best ext. paint out there. appox 43 for a bucket(10lts).
water down the first coat with a litte bit less than 10 percent.
second coat use it pure.
and i would recommend a 3rd coat if u where stayin in the house longer.

this will last years and far better than santex.
regards keith.

Thanks Keith.... was looking at paint yesterday in homebase and they didn't seem to have santex, but had shelves and shelves of Weathershield so might give that a go. They also had the new weathershield sprayable....anyone have any experience with that? I'm guessing on a day with any wind its a no no but would it work well on a calm day?

We were measuring last night and looks like we have about 100ft of wall to paint (which is 5ft8' high), so two or three coat would take quite a while!

garyh3

Hi sillysocks,

We have breeze block and used the reeds on a roll,(2m high x 4m wide 37 euro a roll from home base, but you can get bamboo, grass or (willow expensive) also. I then just painted the support columbs and put a small trellis on them.

To secure the reeds I just used those white cable secures that you use for securing a cable to brick work .

here are a few pics, its a woking progress as all gardens are.

FYI the trees from left to right are

Apple - training on a wire

middle are 2 pear trees - which are being trained festoons (ie the branches are bent back into the middle

end one is a cherry which I pruining every year to keep it small .

on the trellis I have honey suckle and a gooseberry.

hope this helps

Garyh3

mattia

Hi Garyh3,
Could you please tell me if your reeds are still intact by the weather (rain, cold)?
How are your trees after 5 years?
Thank you.
mattia