I have to say I'm grateful to Gardening Gone Wild for continuing to supply interesting topics which give me a reason to post. Otherwise I think I might hibernate like my garden. Southern CT has been cold and snowy in an unrelenting way, and now I'm in Florida with VPH and we both have colds. So in order to write about walls and fences I had to look back at my archives for inspiration.
The wrong side of our neighbor's gray fence runs the entire length of our garden and provides a nice background for whatever we want to plant -- here it's our vegetable garden (beans climb quite happily up netting hung over the fence):
And a lovely area on the east side of the house against which containers of flowers and herbs really pop and plenty of posts on which to hang baskets of flowers:
Our neighbor used to cut back the ivy on his side of the fence, but we asked him to let it grow because we like how it covers the fence. The ivy has really filled in quite a bit since his photo was taken in 2008 and hides the weird transition from one type of fencing to another:
In fact, here's a photo from August 2009 that better shows the ivy on the fence (that lounger is getting a nicer base this summer):
The other focal wall in our garden is the south facing one of our house. We put in a concrete patio here and purposely left a bed between the patio and the house. It started out as a wildflower garden, but in the fall of 2008 we planted the "patio garden" with pass along irises and day-lilies as well as a row of inexpensive grasses along the foundation. The trellises were a suggestion from a reader to help balance the odd single window:
The bare-root clematis planted at the base of the trellis will hopefully survive the winter and grow more this summer, but we're very happy with the rest of the garden:
Now if budget weren't a factor and we owned this home instead of renting...well let me show you a few photos from the 2009 Guilford Secret Garden tour that could provide inspiration. How about some modern sculpture in your garden with a nice tall fence behind it and a split-rail fence between your garden and your neighbor's:
Wouldn't you love this view out your back window? Let me emphasis that these are the gardens of 2 private homes:
And I don't think there's anything prettier than a stone wall bordering your garden:
This isn't a wall or fence or really a garden shot, but I used to work high school/college summers as an au pair/sous chef/weekend maid for the owners of the spectacular home on the right of this photo. You can't see here that it's on a peninsula and their private beach is to the right out of frame, but you can see their private dock dead ahead (though both the sailboat and motorboat seem to be missing). From the water you can see that the house is perched on a huge rock and if you were closer here you'd see that the foundation of the house is half stone and mortar and half bedrock. The laundry room was to the left of the covered entrance and had been blasted out of the bedrock (I spent a lot of time there ironing t-shirts...I know I didn't get it either):
I had quite a few firsts there -- cutting fresh basil from a garden; tasting fresh tomato, mozzarella, and basil; and washing $1,000 bedspreads -- I bet you can guess which of those 3 things I haven't done since! But that really was the beginning of my understanding that fresh foods straight from the garden were the best tasting.
And there you have my 2 cents on walls and fences.
You're so lucky to be able to "borrow" the background of your neighbor's fence, Heather. You've certainly made the most of it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and images for the Design Workshop this month. Hope you feel better soon!
Posted by: Nan Ondra | February 27, 2010 at 12:53 PM
I like how you've used your neighbors fence to turn those areas into outdoor living areas. The furniture and hanging flowers really dress it up! Split rail fences really give things a nice rustic look!
Posted by: Dave@TheHomeGarden | March 01, 2010 at 08:08 AM
Nan -- Thanks, I'm almost human today. Almost.
Dave -- I have to laugh. My sister doesn't read this blog and hasn't been to my house in a few years, but last night I was with her at my mom's house and she was forced to look at the blog. She saw that photo of the side of the house with the furniture and plants along the fence and said, but this isn't your house. So yes, they really do dress it up!
Posted by: Heather's Garden | March 01, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Clear, concise and easy to read. Thanks for a nice blog post!
Posted by: SEO Melbourne | July 04, 2012 at 04:18 AM
Fence is very important thing for making garden attractive. You can use various types of fences to add beauty to your garden. There are very few people in this world who gives such tremendous views. Thanks.
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Posted by: EthanAllen | July 05, 2012 at 09:11 AM