15 Gorgeous Garden and Privacy Fences

Give your yard a finishing touch with a one-of-a-kind fence. Find the inspiration you need to create your own garden escape.

By: Julie Martens Forney

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Pick Your Picket

A fence transforms a garden into a setting, creating a sense of place. You might need a garden fence to keep deer out, or maybe you want a privacy fence to stage a backyard getaway. The right fence finishes your garden with style. For instance, a traditional picket fence gives any yard a cottage flair. Choose a classic picket for your garden fence when you want a design that’s readily available and also super easy to customize with a coat of paint. Or like this picture-perfect fence, select cedar pickets and let your wood fence weather naturally.

Customize a Garden Gate

Give a picket fence signature style with curves and stately pillars. Vinyl fence designs feature a variety of shapes and unusual features. Dress up your garden gate with an oversize pot brimming with flowers. This larger-than-life container hosts a Flower Carpet Coral rose, perennial coral bells (Heuchera) and a bronze-colored sedge (Carex buchananii).

Find More Ideas: 30 Whimsical Container Gardens Made on the Cheap

Luxurious Lattice

A lattice fence evokes a sense of mystery, letting you catch a glimpse of the garden tucked inside. Add a rounded gate, and you get artistry, with curves and straight lines contrasting in eye-pleasing geometry. Planter boxes sit atop the fence, providing the perfect home for trailing plants like Supertunia petunias. To ensure plants in containers receive enough water, install drip irrigation or mix water-absorbing hydrogel crystals into the soil. This combination of fence with planters offers a gorgeous alternative for deer fencing.

Privacy and Pest Control

Dress up a privacy fence with Asian-inspired touches, including a lattice topper to increase fence height without blocking the view. An 8-foot-tall privacy fence keeps deer out (they can’t jump that high) and prevents them from viewing your yard’s plant buffet. Even if deer smell tasty fruits and flowers, solid wood fence panels prevent them from knowing if danger lurks inside, so they won’t try to enter (even with a shorter fence).

Learn More: 24 Deer-Resistant Plants

Bring On the Romance

In Nantucket, Massachusetts, pretty picket fences surround many of the island homes. The addition of a climbing rose and arched entry trellis makes every garden entrance grand. If you don’t want the upkeep of a wood fence, opt for a maintenance-free vinyl fence. When choosing roses for an entry arch, consider ones with fewer thorns, such as pink ‘Zéphirine Drouhin,’ white ‘Madame Alfred Carrière or purple ‘Veilchenblau.’

Mix It Up

Give a small garden a sense of privacy by using a variety of fence styles. A horizontal privacy fence encloses the seating area so morning coffee and alfresco meals don’t include neighborly views. A horizontal fence makes the outdoor space it encloses seem larger, which means it's a great choice for a small yard. Lattice fence panels subdivide this townhome yard into distinct rooms, and vines scampering on latticework form a living screen.

Find More Ideas: 26 Deck Ideas for Small Yards

Cottage Garden Style

Cultivate cottage garden charm by skirting a picket fence with richly scented plants, including pots of lavender and drifts of Flower Carpet Amber roses. One of the easiest ways to craft a custom fence design is varying picket length to create an undulating effect. If you love hosting birds in your garden, top a fence post with a birdhouse.

Wrought Iron Elegance

In past eras, wrought iron fences wreathed wealthy estates and period homes, bringing undisputed charm to places like New Orleans and Philadelphia. But those distinctive fences rust over time, which means they need to be sanded and painted. Capture the look of old-school wrought iron with a no-maintenance modern material, like steel or aluminum. These metal fences lend a sense of permanence to any garden, fostering an ambiance of always-been-there beauty.

A Traditional Deer Fence

To keep deer from making nightly forays into your yard, consider a typical deer fence design that combines a simple wood fence with wire fencing. With this fence style, height is key. Aim for 8 feet or taller. If you focus on height to exclude deer, you’ll likely be successful. In areas where deer pressure is especially strong, some gardeners add an electric fence, either running a wire outside or on top of the taller fence. The wire fence disappears from view among a thickly planted mixed border of perennials and drifts of Flower Carpet roses.

Pergola Fence

Blend a pergola with lattice to create a bespoke garden fence. By alternating lattice fence panels with openings, the yard retains a sense of openness and connection to surrounding areas. The pergola trellis atop fence panels provides ideal support for vines such as wisteria, trumpet vine, kiwi or cross vine. This type of fence — shorter with a wide top — would exclude deer if the lattice were continuous. Deer do not usually jump wide, so two shorter fences 4 feet apart (or one fence with a wide top) should keep them out.

Soften a Wood Fence

Embrace wood fences in different heights to cradle your yard with the perfect amount of privacy. A taller fence topped with lattice acts as a privacy fence along the busy street side of a backyard, while a shorter picket fence section works well on the less-traveled alley side. Soften a wooden privacy fence by topping it with a lattice fence section or smothering it with a vine, such as a climbing rose, moonflower vine or star jasmine.

Find More Ideas: 15 Perennial Vines

Weave a Wattle Fence

For a real DIY project, craft your own wattle fence. Dating to Medieval times, this woven fence comes together with nothing but sticks. You can use fruit tree or shrub trimmings, brush you’re clearing, or gleanings from your local yard waste pile. Fresh sticks work best for weaving because they’re supple, but you can use older, dried sticks, although they’ll break more easily through the process. Willow is a popular choice because you can soak dried branches and they become supple again. Other good woods for weaving include hazel, sycamore and oak.

Go Gabion

For a sustainable and eco-friendly fence, consider gabion cages. Filled with stones, these metal cages form a durable fence that’s an easy DIY project. Alternating stone-filled gabions with a secondary material, such as corrugated metal panels, customizes a gabion fence and also helps maintain views from your yard. One downside to gabion cages is that the stones do attract small critters, which can, in turn, attract snakes. Elevating cages on a concrete exposed aggregate base lessens its appeal to rodents like mice or chipmunks.

Sustainable Wire Fence

You might not consider wire fencing as a great choice for a garden fence, but when paired with gabion pillars, it offers a sturdy, inexpensive option. By planting vines along the wire sections, you create a living privacy fence that’s eye-catching and — if you plant things like peas, beans, melons or cucumbers — edible. With gabion construction, add a layer of glass pebbles for a spot of color.

Asian Influence

Lattice fence panels give a small yard a sense of privacy without restricting views. This fence design features Asian inspiration by topping latticework with open space and crosspieces. You could adapt this look using bamboo poles and crosspieces to create customized bamboo fencing. This fence style also functions effectively as a deer fence, thanks to its increased height.

Learn More: How to Design an Asian Garden

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15 Gorgeous Garden and Privacy Fences

Related To:

Pick Your Picket

Customize a Garden Gate

Luxurious Lattice

Privacy and Pest Control

Bring On the Romance

Mix It Up

Cottage Garden Style

Wrought Iron Elegance

A Traditional Deer Fence

Pergola Fence

Soften a Wood Fence

Weave a Wattle Fence

Go Gabion

Sustainable Wire Fence

Asian Influence

Shop This Look

How to Build a Unique Outdoor Privacy Wall

Turn a Picket Fence Panel Into a Gorgeous Garden Gate

Ideas for Disguising Garden Boundaries

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