How to Choose the Best Plants for Your Fence
No matter where you plant your next garden bed, there will be plenty of considerations to make before you select the plant species that will live there. Regarding planting areas near fences, this need for careful planning is as important as ever. The best way to prepare yourself, and your fence garden plan, is to understand how to choose the best plants for your fence area. This chapter will show you how.
Consider Ornamental Features Like Flowers, Foliage, Color, and Texture
There are plenty of practical matters for you to consider when planning a garden. However, the goal of a planting project such as this is to complement and enhance the aesthetic appearance of your property.
In keeping with that goal, choosing the ideal ornamental features for your fence plants should be a top priority. When evaluating plants for their visual appeal, you should take time to study the following:
- Bloom characteristics
- Foliage appearance, including color, texture, and shape
- Overall growth habit and form
Once you understand how each plant delivers on those qualities, you’ll have a better idea of how to match them to the style of your fence.
Anticipate the Mature Size of Your Plants
One of the most common mistakes gardeners make when planting near a fence is failing to anticipate the mature size of the plants they grow. Selecting planting species that are too large will quickly lead to an overcrowding problem.
The best way to avoid this blunder is to study the mature size of every tree and shrub you intend to grow near your fence. Focus specifically on the mature spread of your plant species. Then, provide at least half that dimension between your plant and your fence.
Understand How Vining Plants Climb
If you plant vines near your fence with the goal of having them climb over the fence, you need to understand how vining plants climb. Here is a quick breakdown of how vining plants attach themselves to the structures they climb:
- Twining – The vine simply wraps itself around a structure as it grows.
- Tendrils – The vines use small stems, known as tendrils, that attach to structures while the plant’s main stem grows upward.
- Suction cups – These vines have small disk-shaped parts that act like suction cups to attach to flat surfaces.
When choosing a vine, you should match it to the type of fence you have. For example, twining and tendril vines may struggle to climb a solid fence with a flat surface, while vines with suction cups will have a much easier time.
Be Wary of Vigorous Vines
Our last tip for selecting fence plants is to be wary of vigorous climbing vines. Plants like trumpet vine, wisteria, and others can spread rapidly and aggressively, often outcompeting other plants in your garden and sometimes causing costly maintenance issues.
At times, these vines can even ruin your fence. This occurs most commonly with chain-link fences. After a few years, a fast-growing vine can become so intertwined with a fence that you cannot remove it without uprooting it or removing portions of the fence.