What plants are best to plant along a fence in a summer cottage?

Design recommendations

Our tips will help you choose what to plant along the fence at your dacha and properly improve the hedge:

• Determine the level of illumination. Different types of plants are needed for a bright sunny area and a shaded one.
• Set a landscaping goal. A composition with vines along the fence will help hide the hedge, and trees along the fence will create shade.
• Check the dimensions of the yard. For small areas, choose low bushes along the fence or flower beds. In spacious areas, you can install a hedge of trees.
• Choose plants based on the type of soil. Some species like sand, others like black soil.
• Think about care in advance. Don’t you like to tinker in the garden? Look for easy-to-plant plants that can easily withstand drought.

What is usually planted?

Landscaping along a fence involves using one or more types of seedlings. They are usually divided by height: low flowers, medium-sized shrubs or tall trees. The former perform a more decorative function. The latter create shade and protect from noise and dust from the road.

Shrubs

Their main advantage is their low height. While trees in a circle can create the feeling of a small enclosed space, this will not happen with bushes.

Perennial shrubs can be planted along a fence on both a large and a small plot. They can be:

• deciduous — dogwood, euonymus, cotoneaster, boxwood;
• fruit — raspberry, currant, felt cherry, honeysuckle, barberry, rose hip, shadberry, hawthorn — a harvest of delicious fruits is an excellent reward for your work;
• flowering — lilac, azalea, buddleia, weigela, hydrangea, rhododendron.

The photo shows trimmed bushes in one row

Many bushes can be trimmed, giving them fancy shapes – if you learn how to do the trimming yourself or periodically invite a specialist, green figures can become a feature of your garden.

Flowers

In the previous section, we already mentioned that shrubs can bloom. But flowers along the fence can be even lower and more compact. When choosing suitable varieties, consider the height of an adult plant, the flowering period. To make the flowerbed look decorative all season long, plants of different sizes and different times are combined in the planting.

The most popular flower crops:

• Rose. Climbing varieties beautifully twine along the mesh (if the fence is made of chain-link), they decorate gates and canopies.
• Wisteria. A powerful liana with beautiful buds. Usually planted under strong fences made of brick or stone.
• Dahlia. Low bushes with large flowers are a decoration of any garden.
• Peony. Lush, fragrant, tight peonies bloom in early summer, when other plants are just gaining color.
• Gladiolus. Beloved by many since school days, they look beautiful in a row.

The photo shows wildflowers near a picket fence

If you want to achieve the effect of slight chaos and not devote a lot of time to caring for the flowerbed, plant cosmos, white chamomile, cornflowers, poppies, lavender, petunia.

Trees

It is logical to plant fruit and berry trees along the fence in the garden: apple trees, pears, plums, cherries, chokeberries, apricots. Although they require special care, they will delight you with fresh fruits and berries every summer and autumn.

Both compact fruit and tall decorative-deciduous varieties are planted near the fence of a private house. These can be blue or common spruce, pine, aspen, oak, chestnut, maple. Poplars and birches are highly allergenic, so it is better not to use them in close proximity to living quarters. What you need to consider when planting trees along the fence:

• Growth prospects. Consider how tall and wide the mature tree will be and think in advance – will it block important areas from the sun?
• The root system. It will grow as it matures and can break the fence – so move the seedling 3-5 m from the edge.

Coniferous trees (spruce, thuja, cedar) clean the air well, and thanks to the preservation of needles, your property will be hidden from prying eyes all year round.

If you plant deciduous trees (aspen, linden, etc.) near the fence, you will be able to observe the beauty of nature – in the summer the site will be green, in the fall the trees will flare up yellow and red, in the spring the buds will begin to awaken and new leaves will appear.

The photo shows identical thujas in a row

Mixborder

Planting flowers, trees and shrubs along the fence means creating a mixborder on your site. This composition is assembled from absolutely any species: annuals and perennials, large and low, flowering, berry and decorative. When planting such a mix, arrange it so that the flowerbed looks aesthetically pleasing from May until October – first some bloom, then others.

Try to arrange the seedlings according to the ladder principle, paying attention to the size of the grown, not the young seedling.

1. On the first line – low grass and flowers. Usually these are early-blooming tulips, daffodils, lilies of the valley.
2. In the center are medium-sized bushes blooming in June-July – lilies, peonies.
3. At the back are tall trees and shrubs, preferably late-blooming or with bright (yellow, red) leaves.

The photo shows a mixborder with various plants

Choosing plants for the type of fence

The material from which the fence is made also affects planting.

Wooden fence

Wood is a natural material that goes perfectly with greenery and flowers. Therefore, no matter what you plant, the result will be attractive. Usually, bushes or tall flowers are placed along the fence – unpretentious mallow, sunflower. If the stakes are sparse, take a closer look at the vines – maiden grapes, for example, grow quickly and will twine around the boards amazingly.

The photo shows a mix of decorative foliage

Chain-link mesh

Choose the planting material depending on your task – to hide or decorate. To hide, it is enough to plant tall trees or bushes along the fence from the street and yard side. They will simultaneously hide the unsightly mesh and you from curious passers-by.

You can decorate the mesh with various vines: fast-growing clematis, annual cobea or nasturtium, perennial ivy, grapes, hops.

The photo shows an example of using bushes near a fence

Profile sheeting/corrugated sheet

A blank fence made of corrugated sheeting does not require additional insulation, so low bushes are planted along it or bright flower beds are laid out.

But before planting, check how the fence regulates sunlight: a galvanized sheet, for example, will reflect it and the plants will simply burn in the sun. Dark, on the contrary, hides and creates a shadow, which is also not always good, and also heats up a lot.

Also avoid thorny bushes and flowers – they can scratch the fence during the wind, spoiling the appearance.

The photo shows trimmed thuja

Wrought iron fence

Everything that happens inside is visible from the street, which means you need to take care of the aesthetic “inside”. For example, you shouldn’t press a mixborder against the fence with its high side (unless you want to hide from your neighbors). It is better to make it two-sided – so that the high part is in the center, and lower levels extend from it towards the house and the fence.

The photo shows a high flowerbed option

Brick fence

The brick structure is dense, not letting in sun and air. Blue spruce, arborvitaes, and cedars look good along it. Hostas, ferns, phloxes, and dicentras will feel good in the shade of the fence.

On photo combination of tall and low seedlings on the site

What can be planted on the street side?

If you do not have a personal gardener, it is better to plant something decorative on the street side, but as easy to care for as possible.

Willows, birches, maples, chestnuts, lilacs, and pines grow almost independently. Unlike dwarf and low-growing species, tall ones perfectly absorb dust, extraneous noise, and create a pleasant shadow.

Do you like to take care of your garden and do not want excessive darkening? Choose bushes (tea rose, juniper, rose hips, lilac) or flowers (peonies, dahlias, chrysanthemums, asters). Azalea and buddleia will grow well in the shade.

The photo shows thuja outside the house