Saturday 17 April 2010

I need to espalier something spikey on the pool fence

Any suggestions for a thorny solution to my problem?

What problem?  You might be wondering.  The problem of a three year old who taught her elder siblings that it is possible to use one's toes to climb a pool fence.  This was in the space of a 30 seconds while I was out pulling up some weeds.  I literally looked up at the words

"Watch this Anya!"  and saw Miss Boo wriggle to the top of the six foot fence in a matter of seconds.

Here's my list

Blackberries
Youngberries
raspberries
thorny citrus
or try and locate gooseberries?

3 comments:

belinda said...

Personally I would probably stick with the blackberries or the Youngberry.

Not sure if this is across the board but the raspberries that I am currently growing do have sharp bits but the thorns are now where near as visually impressive as the former. Due to what you said it sounds like that would diminish their worth to you significantly.

Kind Regards
Belinda

Kate said...

a pool safety net. whilst a lot more expensive than plants at least if they still managed 2 get in there they wouldnt get in the water. ours is a 8 x 4 m pool and the net cost us 1300.00 but honestly worth the money for that extra piece of mind as you cant be too safe, especially when they decide to learn new tricks like climbing the fence. feel free to check mine out if u want, something to think about. Kate (ballet)

Anonymous said...

The gooseberries I'm familiar with (in the USA) wouldn't be very good for much unless you planted a good thick patch at the bottom of the fence...they don't get very tall, and they don't "ramble"...they're more shrub-like, but short.