GINA PARKINSON looks at how to dress up your boundaries.

BORDERS and beds are full, the lawn and paths laid and pots are brimming with colourful annuals. So what can an enthusiastic gardener turn their attentions to once this space is used?

The boundaries of the garden can be the next step. While walls and fences define the area and give privacy and security, they can also provide a blank canvas on which to work, covering them in foliage and flowers to create a backdrop to the rest of the garden.

Careful choice of plants will give year round colour as well as height since some specimens will grow beyond their support to give a further dimension to the space.

Evergreen climbers and wall shrubs are a constant source of foliage, providing year round colour - especially useful when other plants have died back.

Clematis armandii, for example, has long, dark green leathery leaves that hang from sturdy, fast-growing stems. New foliage and stems are tinged with bronze and will grow several metres in one season. Thanks to this rate of growth, constant attention is required in the growing season, tying new stems on to wires and generally keeping the plant in order.

However, a bare wall is quickly covered and within a couple of years the plant will reward its owner with a display of wonderful flowers in early spring.

Less showy but equally useful are the fortunei varieties of the genus Euonymus. This evergreen shrub will tolerate both exposed and shady positions and dry conditions once established.

The latter property of the plant makes it ideal in confined spaces, where it has to be planted close to the wall or fence, a notoriously dry area where many other plants struggle.

New specimens will have to be watered regularly in their first year but once they are putting on lots of new growth they can be left alone. An annual mulch will help but this can be difficult to apply when plants are hidden at the back of a full border. The varieties Emerald 'n' Gold and Silver Queen are both attractive and variegated .

For scented flowers and long-twining items, Jasminum officinalis is a good choice. This popular plant is a cottage garden favourite and it will quickly clothe its support. It needs a warm, sunny site and good, moist soil to support its rate of growth.

The fragrant flowers appear from mid-summer to autumn, covering the plants with small, white stars. It looks good grown with dark flowered clematis and summer flowering honeysuckle but can become unkempt if not kept in check. Protruding stems can be removed from time to time during summer to keep it tidy, but it should be allowed to go its own way as far as possible since its wild growth is one of its attractions.

Another wild grower is the golden hop, humulus lupulus aurtus, a deciduous perennial climber. In fact it is such a mad plant that I would never recommend putting it in the garden unless there is a very large space to be filled. It is, however, excellent in a large container placed against a wall where the plant can climb along wires.

We have ours in a metal dustbin - it was originally in a plastic one which the plant eventually split from top to bottom. The container restricts growth and stops the spread of runners but a large wall will still be covered by mid-summer. Daily watering is required to keep such a vigorous plant healthy and weekly liquid feed will keep it well fed.

Updated: 16:18 Friday, July 30, 2004