Landscape Design Idea Using a Fence

Fence as Frame

• An urban backyard is often little more than an unpaved patio behind a brownstone or townhouse. The fence plays an important part in landscape design because it is essential for privacy and it's very visible in the small space. Build a teahouse or a covered pergola against the back fence so it can be clearly seen from the house. Set steppingstones through a patch of velvet turf leading to the tea house. Line the fence with dwarf evergreen shrubs for year-round interest and intersperse planters for annuals in spring, summer and fall and dried ornamental grasses in winter.

Gallery Fence

• Maybe you can't afford a Richard Serra rusted-steel sculpture for your backyard -- but you can use metal sculpture to enhance the fence. Front a plain-jane fence with sheets of cut-out meta; one design might be random circles of various sizes, another could be stylized animal totem shapes. Leave enough room between the metal panel and the fence to accommodate lighting that illuminates the cut-outs and the fence at night. Plant climbing vines or roses over the fence for a partly hidden garden. Set a few containers for thin bamboo or ornamental grasses in front of the rusting panels.

Hobbit Fence

• Make a fence from saplings and branches gathered on your property or collect trimming discards from neighbors. Design gates with sunbursts of thin branches and knobby support posts topped by handmade bird houses. Leave vertical posts uneven at the top and screw the pieces together, then lash them with heavy-duty natural twine for a fairytale effect. Plant climbing, flowering vines and edible beans along the fence for summer and sow sunflower seeds along the brightest part of the fence for late summer and autumn color. Leave the dried seed heads on the stalks for winter birds.

Front Fence

• Get some great curb appeal going, Tom Sawyer-style. Plant a picket fence along the front edge of your property, leaving just enough room between fence and sidewalk for a border of riotous annuals in summer and ornamental grasses in winter. Instead of a gate, frame the entry gap with an arbor. Plant the arbor with climbing roses or woody lilac or wisteria. Allow the gateway vines to ramble over the fence as well, tying the whole construction together. Plant inside the fence with more climbing vines, but this time make them beans and peas as well as sweetpea and honeysuckle. Lay a stepping stone walk from the arbor to the front door, set in a carpet of Irish moss or another green ground cover. This is such a friendly fence, don't be surprised if you finally get to know your neighbors. Trick them into helping with the weeding, a la Tom, by promising payment in fresh vegetables.