By Samjp
Staffordshire, West Midlands,
United Kingdom 
I'm looking for some ideas for trellis/climbing plant supports that I can use with my fence. I have a 5'6" fence which has a 6" gravel board, 4' vertical slat fence topped with 1' trellis panels. As much as I like it I currently see far too much of it and would like some climbing plants to disguise it a bit.
I've been considering trellis fans or small panels but my OH is very much against securing them to the fence (how will we treat the fence he says). As the border goes relatively narrow in places I'm loath to use up too much space adding additional posts to carry trellis. I'm also not sure how well any sort of trellis would work visually because of the trellis topper.
I've attached a photo of the garden taken a couple of months ago (in the rain through the kitchen window lol - please excuse the raindrops). Any ideas greatly appreciated.
14 Jun, 2015
Answers
Hang the trellis from hooks rather than screwing direct onto the fence; trellis, with plant, can then be lifted away from the fence when necessary.
Paint the fence this summer with a long lasting coloured treatment so that you don't need to think about it for 5-7 years.
Use Clematis Montana which will stand cutting hard back but will put on a lot of growth in a season so that when you do need to re-treat the wood you won't be faced with a long length of bare wood again.
PS Unless you know otherwise, that fence would appear to belong to your next door neighbour - the rails are on their side - so you would be advised to ask them if they mind you fixing things to the fence.
15 Jun, 2015
Sbg I'm glad it's not just my OH, even if it makes sense lol.
I've thought about hooks and wires, but again he doesn't
Want to screw them into the panels (and as we have concrete posts they aren't much help). I have thought about using some relatively thin posts and then attaching the wires to those - if I put posts in half way along panels I should be able to get them close to the fence.
Hmm wigwams, that could work.
Urbanite, that's a great idea hanging trellis from hooks, OH may go for that idea.
The fence is definitely ours on that side.
15 Jun, 2015
I also had to deal with fence and trellis. The one thing that I know from experience. The Montana clematis may shoot over to his side of the fence. Mine became very heavy on the top and eventually had to be cut down to start again from the ground. It would be a situation to really get information. Oh, I forgot to mention it did also pull down the well attached 10 feet of sturdy trellis
Morning glories?
9 Jul, 2016
Wow Wells that Montana musta have got very big and heavy.
I tried an annual climber over there last year but I don't think it got enough sun so didn't do very well.
10 Jul, 2016
My OH hates things on the fence too for the same reason. I have several deciduous climbers like clematis that get chopped down so he can paint the fence. We have the plants on wires. 1" eyes screwed into the upright panels with heavy duty wire tight between them. Then nothing gets screwed to the panels. You could also use wigwams to get the height you want.
15 Jun, 2015