Trailing downwards ...

Look at alpines lots there that trail down.

Have you considered Nasturtiums Luckygirl ?
They would add colour into your evergreens.
They don’t seem to need much soil and once they get going they happily trail.

The ivy will be able to cling, doesn’t need help.

Vinca minor, Cotoneaster and evergreen honeysuckles might fit the bill. Also there are some good 'trailing' conifers.

Hi Luckygirl ,

I've just noticed your post :

Lovely as it is , ivy can be a real thug in your garden .
In mine ,it has taken down an exquisite tree and part of the fencing .
In my neighbour's : it is compromising two treasured old apple trees .
My father planted his to hide a 12 'wall . He pruned it annually with his electric hedge cutters and then allowed to grow wild for a year .It established itself along the washing lines ,destroyed a Robinia Frisia and has damaged the wall.
It took three of us six gruelling hours to cut it down last summer.

It's the weight that destroys fences, walls and trees .
It is a prolific grower.

You can make more or less any plant trail downwards from hanging baskets .
I've grown nasturtiums , lobelias pelargoniums and petunias from them .

I'd recommend a far less invasive climber than ivy .

Muehlenbeckia is my favourite .It's so pretty and has delicate dark green leaves .
I've also grown Passion flowers , which are so freaky /lovely and reward you with decorative fruit , jasmine ,potato vine , roses and climbing hydrangea , Clematis hybrids and Montana
.
But all climbers need checking .

I prune the hydrangea ,but as it is such a strong grower and has a bad reputation with some gardeners -I'll be vigilant when I prune.
It might be for a more vigorous prune this year !

Lamium ( dead nettle, doesn’t sting,) is a lovely little plant that usefully covers the ground, but the yellow more common version also known as yellow Archangel,sends out runners that head downwards ove my low walls. The leaves are striped silver green and stay on over winter, although I wouldn’t strictly say it was evergreen.
It’s easily pruned if it gets out of hand

Thank you for all the ideas - lots to look up!

I do not have to worry about the ivy being a thug, as behind the brick wall is a high area (same height as wall) of wild grass, which is also going to have some fruit trees in the autumn. The trees will be well away from the edge of the wall where the ivy is.

Unfortunately the ivy is not clinging to the wall at all - probably because of the high winds here I guess.

For lots of colour ivy leaf pelargonium trails and is covered in flowers. If you don’t get frosts it reflowers next year.

This came up on my Facebook page today and I thought of your post Luckygirl3. It’s a full size olive tree growing in Italy, hanging upside down - apparently it yields olives too.
Nature is amazing.

Ah .... that's just what I need!

How bizarre that it is virtually vertical - you would have thought it would aim for the sun.

I had one of these trailing over a wall which must have been a self setter - it was spectacular when in flower and also evergreen. I think it's a perennial candytuft.
Unfortunately some workmen decimated it (having been told not to touch it) and it is slowly recovering thank goodness.

Picture won't post!

White candytuft

Try again

I have a ground trailer I got as the neibour mentioned a liking for flowering plants but it takes over and having virtually rid the thug ivy am upset as neither of us like it now. (Put this here as forgot my password)

Candytuft looks good

Luckygirl3

Candytuft looks good

I've no idea where mine came from, Luckygirl, a seed from a bird?
It was even more spectacular every year than that one in the picture until a workmen nearly heaved it out. Luckily he was stopped by his boss who'd been asked not to touch it when they were removing the rampant ivy.
It has just survived and did flower a bit this year.

I repeated myself ?