Don’t Fence Me In

By Bobbie Schwartz, FAPLD

The sun is shining, but it’s not yet time to put away the winter coats. However, if someone doesn’t have a fence or is thinking about replacing one, read on.

Although many landscapes have beautifully designed planting plans, creativity seems to be lacking when it comes to designing the fencing. We are used to seeing picket fences, stockade fences, split rail fences, and perhaps even bentwood fences, but why must those types of fences be the only ones we use? Why are the designs always vertical? And why are they always white, black, or gray?

For instance, I have a stockade fence that came with the house more than 35 years ago. It has held up fairly well and serves as an innocuous background for that section of my garPainting every other fence post aqua turned a boring fence into sight that pleases the eye even during the winter.

A blue metal door and Eco-Mesh fence star in a Virginia suburb.

den. The fence is very long, so when I changed the trim color of my house and garage from brown to aqua, I painted every other fence post the same color and topped the posts with copper caps.

A woman who used to be in manufacturing took materials she was familiar with and made them into something special. She used royal blue Eco-Mesh, wire mesh and frames that are powder coated in a wide variety of colors. It can be used for plant facades, screens, trellises and more that are strong and sustainable but she used it to create a tall fence that separates

her driveway from her backyard.

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This orange fence will provide color all year round.

One of Ohio’s award-winning landscape designers sparked a commercial landscape with a fence composed of orange metal panels. How’s that for something different?

Vertical fences such as the frequently used board-on-board are incredibly boring. Why not add another material to make the fence more interesting? We’re always looking for materials that will last, so why not use bamboo, which is rot and pest resistant? In an orientalstyle garden, a fence that intersperses wood boards with bamboo stalks creates a study in textural contrast.

It seems to me that a fence of horizontal design would greatly enhance a small space because it would give the illusion of greater width. I’ve encountered this type of fence made of irregular boards in England and here in the States, usually with a lattice topper.

The typical bentwood fence is made out of relatively thick branches, but I saw one in Detroit that was more like woven willow.

R: This fence divides the house and pool from the beach beyond. Below: A stand of dwarf bamboo echoes this Asian-themed fence that is partially composed of bamboo.

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The lattice topper provides something onto which Sweet Pea tendrils can cling. It was very graceful but also provided total privacy.

In my travels, I’ve seen an infinite variety of fences. These are only a few of the more unusual ones. I hope you will be inspired to create some distinctive fences of your own.

Bobbie Schwartz, a certified landscape designer in Shaker Heights, Ohio, is the owner of Bobbie’s Green Thumb, a full-time business focusing on landscape design, consultation, installation and maintenance, lecturing, and writing. Most of Bobbie’s designs are for residential properties. Her landscape signature is the use of perennials, flowering shrubs, and ornamental grasses to facilitate color and interest throughout the year. An obsessed gardener for fifty years and a landscape designer for forty-two years, her extensive travels to gardens and nurseries have contributed greatly to her knowledge of design and new plants. Bobbie has received several design awards for residential, commercial, and institutional designs. She lectures locally and nationally for master gardeners, botanical gardens, and landscape associations on various aspects of design and perennial and ornamental grass gardening. She also writes extensively for various associations and magazines. Her book, Garden Renovation: Transform Your Yard into the Garden of Your Dreams, was released by Timber Press in 2017.

MNLA: Serving Veterans Who Have Served Us

It took four days, hard work by volunteers from the Harvard Lions Club, and generous contributions of materials and services from the American Fence Association and two of MNLA’s own — Bigelow Nurseries in Northboro and Omasta Landscaping in Hadley — to transform a patch of grass into a beautiful service-dog training area at Clear Path for Veterans New England (Clear Path NE) in Devens, Massachusetts.

Clear Path NE (https:// www.clearpathne.org/) is a 501(c)3 established in 2017 to provide support to veterans through a wellnessbased Community Center to bolster those who served, with a particular emphasis on reconnecting veterans to their communities upon their return home.

One of Clear Paths NE’s core programs is the training of service dogs for veterans dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder, military sexual trauma, and/or traumatic brain injury. As this program expanded, Clear Path NE identified the need for a large, outdoor, fenced training area, but did not have the resources to build it. The Harvard Lions Club stepped forward to take on this project. Lion Bill Johnson first reached out to the American Fence Association for help. They generously provided all of the required fencing materials, and the Lions put it together in just two days. Johnson then contacted MNLA Executive Director Rena Sumner for assistance with acquiring shrubs to provide necessary screening for the training area. Rena reached out to the MNLA Board, and Pat Bigelow called Bill the very next day to tell him Bigelow Nurseries wanted to adopt the project, generously offering 29 8-foot-tall, dark-green arborvitae to be planted along the fence periphery. Realizing that the handling and planting of such mature shrubs required professionals, Bigelow’s Jeff Willman connected Johnson with Chris Omasta, who drove 1.5 hours from Hadley with equipment and crew from his Omasta Landscaping and Yellow Ribbon Trucking companies

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