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How to Incorporate Fences Into Your Spring Landscaping Plan

Now that it’s spring many people will be inspired to improve the look of their garden. Whether you are planning a total overhaul of your outdoor area or are just doing a revamp, don’t forget to incorporate fences into your spring landscaping plan.

The Value of Fences: Why We Need Them

We install fences for a number of very basic reasons. For instance, to:

  • Provide protection
  • Provide privacy
  • Keep animals and children safe, especially from water, heights, or from traffic
  • Help control wind, sun, and noise
  • Improve our landscaping plans

But in reality, we usually install fences for more than one of these reasons. Additionally, whatever our reason, we can usually use them as part of a landscaping plan.

Fences as Landscaping Tools

Plants and fences work well together especially since fences tend to look flat and unfriendly without plants. Fences may be:

  • Designed to support creepers, climbers and vines, and even espaliers that are shrubs and trees that are trained to grow against a fence.
  • Designed for use as part of a structure that will support hanging planters, trellises, and possibly raised planters.
  • Used as a backdrop for plants or to soften the harsh lines of fencing, and add depth to a fence, particularly one erected around the perimeter of a property.
  • Used to modify the micro-climate in your garden by acting as a wind-break, or creating areas that are in shadow during parts of the day, which is beneficial for shade-loving plants.
  • Designed so that they add color, texture, and pattern to the landscaping scheme as a whole.
  • Used together with plants so that they are camouflaged or even hidden.

Top Tips to Successfully Incorporate Fences Into Your Spring Landscaping Plan

  1. If possible plan your fence at the same time as you devise your spring landscaping plan.
  2. Make sure your fence and planting plan match in terms of scale. That means you need to be aware of just how big shrubs and trees will eventually grow.
  3. Remember that dark colored fences will contrast well with light foliage and flowers while darker leaves and blooms will contrast more effectively with fences that are lighter in color.
  4. If you are planning to use a fence to support vines or creepers you will find that those with a more open design generally work best.
  5. Plan lighting to add dimension to your fence and the plants around it, to produce a silhouette of plants for instance.
  6. Plants need the “right” amount of sunlight and shade to flourish, depending of course on the species. When grown alongside fencing, there is sometimes the danger that the effect of the sun will be more intense. To avoid this possibility, make sure there is sufficient space for air to circulate around the plants.
  7. Since this is a spring landscape plan you probably won’t be thinking about winter right now! Nevertheless, you need to bear all four seasons in mind. A fence may be used to deflect winter wind to lessen any chance of frost damage. It may also be used to trap heat from the sun so that you can successfully grow plants that might otherwise not survive the winter.
  8. Fences erected within your property may be designed so that plants grow on both sides. An open fence design allows plants to gravitate to the other side when you plant on one side only.

FenceWorks of Georgia is a leading Atlanta fence installation company. If you live in our part of the world we will gladly install fencing that will meet the needs of your spring landscaping plan. Call us for more information and pricing.