Garden fence ideas

Decide whether you want your fence to merge into the background or play a starring role in your garden. Choose dark muted shades to make your fence as unobtrusive as possible, such as rich oaky brown for a country look or dark charcoal grey or black for a contemporary urban garden. As well as making a fence visibly recede, these darker shades show off plants beautifully, making an outstandingly handsome contrast to green foliage and colourful flowers. While mid- to dark greens may at first seem an obvious choice to create an unobtrusive fence, these can jar with the many shades of green found in a garden and often make it more obvious, achieving quite the opposite effect.

Soft wood stain colours like grey, sage and blue are favourites for creating a charming look, especially in combination with pastel flowers and accessories. These muted colours work well in traditional gardens and create feelings of calm and relaxation, ideal for patios and seating areas.

Light colours, particularly light grey and off-white, can help to make your garden look bigger as they reflect light and soften the edges of the garden. Bear in mind that bright white can be a bit harsh and bold, and should be avoided.

Bright, vibrant shades up the tempo, ideal for small or enclosed spaces to create distinct themes or a feeling of theatre. Rich blues, bright yellows, vibrant orange or terracotta, emulate gardens from regions such as the Mediterranean or North Africa and therefore work well in sunny sites.

If you’re uncertain about which colour to use, test before taking the plunge and buying a big, costly tin of stain. Buy sample pots, paint pieces of plank or board, and hang up to assess at your leisure. Consider your colour choice in tandem with the colours of your walls, garden furniture, paving and any other key features, to create an overall scheme that really pulls the garden together.

• Buy fence paint from Amazon, Argos, B&Q, Ebay, Robert Dyas

Creative fence ideas

Combine different materials to make your ideal fence that suits the needs of your garden, lifestyle and budget.

Trellis

Use trellis to provide support for a wonderful variety of climbing and trainable plants. On solid fences, one of the easiest ways to grow and support plants is to fix panels of trellis to the front. Use blocks of wood (5 cm or so) as spacers, to create a gap between trellis and fence that’s perfect for birds to nest in.

If you don’t need the instant privacy and screening of a solid fence, use trellis panels on their own instead, clothed with plants to create screening that is light and airy, avoiding making your garden feel too enclosed.

Adding panels of trellis to the top of a solid fence creates privacy, especially in combination with climbing plants. Just check you don’t exceed the maximum permitted height for a boundary, which can apply to some properties.

Fence screening

Fence screening, sold by the roll and made of natural materials like willow, bamboo or reed, is like garden wallpaper, perfect for quick and economical cover-ups of unsightly fences. It's especially useful if the boundary doesn’t belong to you, though do check with your neighbours before fixing anything to their fence.

Use screening as a short-lived fence on its own, supported by a framework of posts and strong galvanised wire.

Laser-cut metal panels make fantastic decorative screens but aren’t cheap. Use just one or two as features within a plain fence, or as stand-alone screens.

Perspex panels are excellent for small or dark garden spaces as they let light through.

• Buy fence screening from Amazon, B&Q, Ebay

Alternatives to fences

Living boundaries, in the form of a hedge, have certain advantages over fences. They are long-lived, look good all year round, stand up well to strong winds, and make excellent homes for all kinds of wildlife. Hedges do take time to grow and form a good-sized screen – unless, that is, the budget allows for buying mature plants. Specialist nurseries supply ready-grown and clipped hedging in troughs or planting bags for instant effect, though at a price.

Hedges also take up more room than a fence. Even a regularly clipped hedge will occupy at least a metre in width.
A good compromise is a ‘fedge’ – a combination of a fence and a hedge – using rigid metal mesh supported by posts and planted with ivy. Trim several times a year to maintain a neat green screen. Ready-grown panels are also available to buy.

Make a living screen using willow, bought when dormant (ideally November to February) as long stems, known as rods. Insert in the ground and weave together to form a lattice screen, then trim several times a year to maintain the shape.

• Buy a willow 'wedge' kit from The Willow bank and Musgrove Willows
• Buy hedging fromThompson & Morgan, Suttons, Crocus