Non toxic climbing plants?

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hairycob

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Any ideas? I want to grow something up a chainlink fence to hide a bit of an eyesore. It's along a narrowish path next to the house that goes to a shed so needs to be not too bushy. Horses the other side of the fence, hence the need for non toxic. Living room window looks onto it so needs to be attractive. Fence is about 4' high.
 
Probably a climbing/rambling rose would be an idea. In summer you could use climbing nasturtiums, but that's only part of the year.

Paula
 
Ivy can cause problems if eaten in large quantities, however small amounts are unlikely to cause a problem. So they should be prevented from eating it, but a mouthful grabbed on a hack wont kill em.Cas

This is talking about normal climbing ivy. Ground ivy (american origin) is more toxic I believe. These woody vines, also used as groundcovers, have alternate, palmately-lobed, dark green leaves with lighter green veins (fig. 5). Flowers are uncommon but are borne in small umbrella-like clusters and produce small black berries.

Call a vet if they eat a lot of it; most common result is mouth and stomach irritation (can cause colic). In big enough quantities it can be fatal.
 
Think a rose might be a bit too thorny for a narrowish path. Any other ideas. All the local garden centre seems to have is clematis , which is apparently toxic.
 
Russian vine would certainly cover it, but you'd be pruning like a madman all the time, especially if the fence is only 4'. It certainly lives up to its mile a minute name.

Thinking about it I think the best option might be to ask the neighbour if you could put some fencing/tape up to keep the horses away from your fence as you want to cover it. I'm sure they'd want you to be able to grow the plants you want and keep their horses safe at the same time.

Looking online it seems that there are few things that aren't toxic in some way, I think if fencing it off isn't an option I'd probably go for lavender beside the path (which is evergreen and can be pruned to keep tidy,) and possibly a thornless rose like Zepherine Drouhin?
 
Most evergreens are toxic so I'll ignore those.

What about willow - you could plant closely and use a variety of stem colours (NB needs to be not too close to house cos of roots)

Beech is good too, and if you clip it as a hedge it quite often retains its leaves over most of the winter.

Think I would plant a nice beech hedge. Staggered double row, each about 6 -9 inches apart. You could pop a bit of hazel in there too and maybe an apple tree or two!
 
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