Plant a Vine for Earth Day

As we move deeper into April, that means we’re getting closer to May. May is the date Mimi and I have been living for since we have committed to being on the MRA tour of gardens this year. We have done some big projects, but we have had to wait to plant some of the tender plants until the last minute because the temperatures at night have been so topsy-turvy. We had a point last week that we agreed it’s time to jump in with everything. It seems that the nights have stabilized into the 60s and that is the magic number we were waiting for. Our yard will be scrutinized by possibly 1000 people that weekend so we are noticing every crook and cranny in our yard.

As I looked around, I noticed how much we use vines in different places and for different reasons in our garden. When I walk around Garden Works, I see also that we have a lot of vines available for people, I guess we are believers of vines. I have vines that are evergreen and some that are perennial and some that are annual. I have been experimenting with vines for about 30 years. Most of my areas and arbors that I use Evergreen vines are mixed with an annual vines so I can have color year-round. I have a beefy arbor that all four posts have evergreen wisteria growing up the posts and the green starts at the top so we’ll have shade to swing under. With my Evergreen Clematis I have vine, which is perennial and firecracker vine, which is annual. The evergreen wisteria holds green glossy leaves during the winter and early spring. Right about now my Coral Vine comes back from the ground and begins to cover areas on the arbor. I don’t expect to see blooms from them until probably September. The annual vine, firecracker vine has to come up from seed from last year, so that probably won’t happen until later in May. I will see blooms from that vine sitting on top of everything starting around September also.

I have a tall pole with a Martin house on top of it that I built a trellis around the pole. I have Dutch honeysuckle mixed with bleeding heart climbing up that one. In my garden, I took cattle panels which are 4‘ x 16 feet long and made a tunnel that you can walk through between my beds. Those panels are covered in blue Pea vine, Mexican flame, vine, coral Vine, firecracker, vine, Mandevilla, and hyacinth bean. With those vines, I have something blooming all the way through the spring summer and fall then, unfortunately, I have to take all that down in the winter time when it turns brown. On the back panel of my garden, I have moon flower, which is also an annual vine that gives me blooms all the way through until winter. I grow sweet peas in the winter time in obelisks so that they can fill that up and start blooming for right now. It looks like my sweet peas will be blooming full on for the garden tour.

We have four different kinds of Clematis around the yard some that bloom early and some that bloom later in the fall. We also have an Evergreen Clematis called Armandi growing up our fence between us and our neighbors. That is our favorite one. That evergreen Clematis has beautiful dark green glossy foliage with white blooms sitting on top that bloom profusely for about two months. I could go on and on about all the different vines that we have here at the house but the point is how useful they can be in different applications. We have used up the space in our yard that we want to use for trees and other evergreens. Vines come in handy when you want to go vertical, but you don’t have the width to do it.

The trellis that you use or make is important for a number of reasons. Most vines have tendrils that want to wrap around something so it can get started and it’s upward adventure. Some vines require a very large and heavy trellis in order to support the structure as they are very vigorous growers. Some of the evergreen vines will require something very sturdy that can handle the weight of a lot of plant like wisteria. Some of the vines that are available this time of year that are tropical like Mandevilla and dip Ladina and bleeding heart won’t require such a heavy duty structure to hold it up because they will just be here until winter.

I have had good luck with some of the tropical vines surviving the winter here underground, and coming back up such as the Thunbergia blue sky, that one is back for its fourth year in a row and one of my favorite vines that I used to cover the entrance to my garden. If you go home from the garden center with a climbing rose, you’ll need to make sure you have thought out where that will go because it will need something heavy to hold it up. Vines are really fun to work with in the garden because they provide flowers that look like nothing else. Most of the garden centers have 5 to 10 types of honeysuckle available this time of year. Most people think of that terrible vine, the honeysuckle that takes over around here. I wouldn’t recommend planting that one on purpose, although it is pretty when it blooms. Some of the hybridized versions don’t get quite as aggressive and are really beautiful reds and oranges.

Confederate Jasmine is a very good vine for Mississippi. It stays green year- round and blooms white, fragrant flowers for nine months of the year. Carolina Jessimine is very vigorous and will cover an arbor very fast and has yellow blooms but only for about six weeks then it is an evergreen vine that will give you cover if that’s what you’re going for. I think everybody should own a moon flower or a hyacinth bean because they are just beautiful and bloom for so long. Anyone that has a fence has an opportunity to experiment with vines and see what a difference they make in brightening up an area that plants just don’t normally do well for whatever reason. It’s easy to make your own trellis or plant support to get those vines up your fence or you can find some good choices at the garden centers around town.

Vines are a whole other world to investigate and a very easy plant to have in your yard. There are some vines that adhere to a brick wall such as fig vine or Boston Ivy. We use Boston Ivy on both sides of our house because it adheres so well to the stucco. I love the dark glossy green foliage starting in spring, and then as it begins to turn gold and red in the fall, it is really gorgeous. When the leaves fall off for winter, you’re left with the structure of the vine adhered to the wall.

Next Wednesday is Earth Day. In 1969 there was a massive oil spill near Santa Barbara. That was the catalyst that caused a movement that hundreds of thousands of people were primed for after the very important book. Rachel Carson published. A silent spring. In 1962 this book took off in 24 countries and caused a movement. The book raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable link between pollution and public health. Those were the early days when no one really gave a hoot and Would pollute. We have come a long way with that issue. The common activity that us regular people do on Earth Day is go around cleaning up trash or planting a tree where one needs to be planted. Even in small ways around your community just picking up trash along your walk is celebrating Earth Day. To celebrate Earth Day most people do what they can to clean up around their communities, some schools educate the young ones on Earth Day by having cleanup drives, anything helps. you might know an area in or near your daily drive that catches your eye every morning on your commute that seems, for some reason to be a place that folks seem to see as a convenient place to throw their cans or clean out their vehicles.

Hopefully cleaning up these areas will deter the next dumper from doing it there and it will make your spirit feel better to have done it and to not have to look at that mess every day. Some might see you in action and decide they’ve had enough of the sites they see. In 2010 1 billion people worldwide made those moves to celebrate the 40th anniversary. The 50th anniversary was during the pandemic so they somehow had 100 million people held the largest online mass mobilization in history. Earth Day is a bigger deal than I realized with that many people choosing to involve themselves with doing any little thing that will help to pay a little attention to our surroundings. Earth Day led to the creation of the EPA, which transformed the way we do things now taking into consideration just about everything we do progression wise. Hopefully you can find a group that has an activity planned or maybe even organize one on your street or in your community. Even celebrating solo with a trash bag and a plan can be very gratifying to spend a few hours on this Wednesday. Every little thing helps.

This year‘s theme is our Our Power Our Planet. The campaign emphasizes

community action, renewable, energy and environmental protection, encouraging activism through tree planting, cleanups, and policy changed to fight climate change in plastic pollution. Our power, Our Planet highlights, grass roofs efforts to fight, climate change and protect the environment. To participate, you can check earthday.org to find a map of local events, sign petitions, and access educational resources. Hopefully if you have a little time on your hands, you can spend a few hours making our only planet a little better one community at a time. I hope your spring is going well and I hope you’ll give a lonely corner of your yard of vine so it can liven it up and make you smile when you look out that way.