By Marian Rengel

A backdrop. A decoration. A screen. A wall. A barricade.

A fence might serve so many purposes that it's rather hard to define what one is. To some people, a fence is a tool to protect privacy. To other people it is a way to decorate a natural space.
Know the rules on building fences

"We really have these staid ideas of what fences are" said landscape architect Doris Sullivan. "A fence can be 6 inches high that says 'this is where my area is' or 8 feet tall that says 'don't come into my property.'"

This past-president of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects sees great potential for fences, once people start opening their minds and their imaginations. "It really depends on each project," said Sulliven who has designed "quite a few" fences. "Make the fence fit into that project."

A short section of black iron fencing might accent the back of a perennial garden. A long stretch of a wood fence could provide a trellis for climbing vines to grow color up toward the sky.

We are so used to our stereotypes, according to Doris Sullivan, that we don't realize how we might use fences attractively in our landscapes. "The only discouraging thing to me is how little people use fences," she said. Sullivan, from Minneapolis, designs landscapes for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

If you are planning a fence, look first to your home. "The material of a fence should take its cue from the structure of the building," Sullivan said. An older home might draw its design from the texture of the clapboards on the house. A stucco home might look best with a stucco fence. "You try to have the fence complement the house," she said.

Fences need not follow one straight barrier line. A jog in from the property line provides a nice extra garden, Sullivan pointed out. A fence can jog around an old tree that might seem to be in the way. "I try to honor those trees. A fence can go anywhere you want it to and turn anywhere you want," she said. "You can move a fence around a tree. I've seen where people have taken the fence up to the tree."

Americans, she said, have far different expectations for a fence than people in other parts of the world. In a book of Japanese gardening she saw an "absolutely ingenious" fence made from strips of bamboo. One end was planted in the soil, then the bamboo was looped like a croquet wicket and the other end was planted in the soil a short distance from the first. The next bamboo shoot was planted in the middle of that first arch. A series of bamboo shoots made a decorative boarder around a flower bed. "It really is a fence," she said, and not merely edging.

The fence, then becomes a way to draw attention to plants or a way to reach skyward with a design. "Choose a variety of heights," Sullivan recommended, "so that in some places you see all of the fence and in other parts you see none. It all becomes part of a design, part of a picture."

Vines make excellent covers for fences. Boston Ivy works well, of course, but parthenocissus, a member of the grape family, also makes a good fence climber. "They're the ones that grow on buildings. They don't grow very fast, but once they take over, they grow anywhere and will get kind of rampant."

Don't stop with plants when it comes to decorating your fence. Sullivan would like to see people do more with crafted objects as well as natural items. "Sometimes hang ornaments. A sculptured sunburst, at the top maybe a gargoyle's head. You can hang planters like pots off of a wall," she said.

You can even use fences as dividers in your own lot. Sullivan has one around her compost pile and garbage area. You could build a small partially screened outdoor room and leave the rest of the yard wide open for other ideas.

This article ran in the St. Cloud Times Home & Outdoor Living section in June 1998.