Natural Fence Ideas
Even though all kinds of good fences make good neighbors, natural fences can make some of the most happy. Attractive from all points of view, natural fences mark boundaries and protect privacy while bringing added beauty to your landscape. Whether you plant a tree or hedge border, build a berm or dry-lay your stone wall, making a natural fence allows people on both sides of your property enjoy the results.
Hedge
A few examples can illustrate the very broad range of hedging choices available for homeowners at U. S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8 through 10. If selecting hedge plants, then aim for evergreens, which will give your property a consistent year-round appearance or to get deciduous shrubs with prolonged seasonal interest. Red chokeberry (Arona arbutifolia) is deciduous, with pink spring flowers, red autumn foliage and crimson grapes persisting into winter. Using a rather dense growth habit, red chokeberry is hardy in USDA plant hardiness zones 4 through 9 and reaches 6 to 10 feet in height with a width of 3 to 6 feet. Evergreen Japanese laurel (Aucuba japonica) has a 6 to 10 foot width and height. Spring flowers are reddish-purple and yield to red fall berries. Broadleaf green foliage is spattered with gold or yellow. To get rose-lovers, Rosa chinensis “Mutabilis” grows 6 to 10 feet high and half as wide. An evergreen hardy in USDA plant hardiness zones 6 through 9, “Mutabilis” China rose blooms vary from yellowish to salmon-pink to reddish-brown within a long blooming season.
Grasses
Ornamental grasses, like Karl Foerster feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutifolia “Karl Foerster”), can grow into a feathery or dense border display up to 5 feet high. “Karl Foerster” is only one of many grasses hardy through USDA zone 9. Mixing several clumping grass varieties together or blending grass with different shrubs, like bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and daylily (Hemerocalis spp.) , in a layered border from 3 to 6 ft or wider creates year curiosity. If your property permits an even wider mixed border, you can even incorporate modest trees to create an old-fashioned hedgerow.
Passion
Mediterranean climate conditions are best for cultivating varieties of bamboo in the clumping Borinda and Fargesia genera, which are hardy in USDA plant hardiness zones 7 through 9. While the genus Phyllostachys can also be hardy in zones 8 through 10, it’s what’s known as a running bamboo; aggressive roots enable rapid spread, but this makes plants from the genus hard to maintain as a hedge. Clumping bamboo varieties typically develop a 10 to 20 foot height range, attaining nearly all of their height in their first years of development and gradually filling clumps with new sprouts yearly. This habit allows you to establish a privacy screen quickly, which will become denser with time.
Berms
By improving existing contours of your premises or adding dirt, you can build a very low mound known as a berm to function as a natural fence. Frequently less than 3 feet high, round, oval or rectangular, a berm separates adjoining properties or one property place from another. Its height can be increased by plantings of shrubs, small trees and blooming perennials in either formal or naturalistic layout.
Stone Walls
Among the oldest types of natural fence is the dry-laid stone wall. Stones are piled without mortar, relying on shape and weight to remain strong. Due to the lack of mortar, dry-laid walls are usually a maximum of 3 feet in height. Digging a trench to stabilize the first layer, or course, of stones and fitting stones together are hard work and time consuming. Results will, nevertheless, be repairs and permanent should be simple.