How to Landscape Along an Ugly Side of the Fence

Attach wires between fence posts temporarily to train small trees or shrubs into living sculptures called espalier. Pruned to grow only the lateral branches in a flat plane along the fence, the espaliered plants form a graceful, ornamental screen that obscures the fence's least attractive attributes. Evergreen bushes provide year-round fence coverage while espaliered fruit trees yield a tasty harvest as well as natural visual distraction from the fence's hard surfaces.

Plant vines along the base of the fence where they can climb, twist and ramble up over the unpleasant features, creating a flowing, decorative cover-up. Flowering vines like clematis punctuate the fence's rigid facade with multiple bursts of color during their blooming season. Fast-growing honeysuckle and antique climbing roses transform unattractive boards with foliage, flowers and fragrance. Evergreen and semi-evergreen vines provide long-season foliage coverage and an interesting texture overlay during the winter.

Hide the ugliness in its entirety with a screen of evergreen trees or bushes planted several feet inside the fence line. For a picket or other style of low fence, a tidy row of 3- to 4-foot-high junipers, boxwood or rhododendrons shields the eye from fence material while still allowing a clear line of vision beyond the fence top. Conceal the backside of taller privacy fences with narrow or pyramid-shaped varieties of cypress, holly, cedar or arborvitae.

Camouflage the aesthetic dissonance of a tall fence's structural members by incorporating them into an arbor for grapes and kiwi fruit. Install lattice across top of the fence's own support posts and sturdy posts set in concrete 2 to 3 feet from the fence line. The posts and overhead canopy provide good-looking support for raising your own fresh kiwis and grapes for eating or wine making.

Modify the view of the fence by playing up the vertical dimension of the posts rather than concealing them. Plant a colonnade apple tree, also known as columnar apple tree, in front of each post. This hybrid apple variety grows up to 9 feet tall, draws the line of vision upward instead of to the ugly fence parts and bears edible fruit in slender style.

Give the ugly parts of the fence a practical function in the landscape. Treat the posts as pillars, attaching heavy-duty hooks to hold large hanging baskets filled with flowering annuals and trailing plants. Slip deck railing brackets onto the vertical sections of the fence framework to hold window boxes for a colorful display of flowers against the backdrop of a hard, dull surface. Run a drip irrigation system along the fence boards to reduce the amount of maintenance necessary to keep the flowers vibrant.