How to Create a Colorful Fence Line Using Flowers
A bright, sunny summer border planted along a fence line adds brilliant color and helps visually soften a fenced area. Fenceline planting also works to hide an otherwise unsightly fence. Creating a sunny border allows you to add color to a post-and-rail fence that shows off all the summer hues. With proper planting and aftercare, you can enjoy color along a fence row all summer long.
Here we provide you with fence line flower bed ideas.
Choosing Flowers
Creating an attractive border means choosing flowers of varying heights, shapes, and colors. This includes ground covers and plants for the foreground, middle ground, and background.
• Ground covers fill in areas around plants to inhibit weed growth and add color. Some good choices include perennial sweet pea and creeping thyme.
• Foreground plants are flowers growing up to 20 to 24 inches tall. Some good choices include mountain bluet, blanket flower, blue star and sweet alyssum.
• Middle ground plants are flowers growing between three to five feet tall. Purple coneflowers, daylilies and ghost plants make good middle ground plants.
• Background plants are tall, growing up to 7 feet tall. Parakeet flower, queen-of-the-prairie, and black-eyed Susan are beautiful choices.
Other easy-to-grow flowers that you may consider include French and African marigolds, petunias and dwarf zinnia. These flowers grow almost anywhere, and petunias come in every color of the rainbow, including stripes, patterns, or solid colors.


Planting and Care
Once you’ve chosen flowers by height and color for your border, start by clearing out a 3-foot wide border in front of the fence. Remove any weeds, rocks or other debris and till, or work in, a 2-inch layer of compost.
1. Plant the background flowers first; place black-eyed Susan plants or other tall plants along the fence, spacing them about one foot apart.
2. Plant middle ground plants next, placing the daylilies or purple coneflowers to fill in spaces around background flowers. There is no set pattern, but do use equal numbers of plants.
3. Position foreground plants, like sweet alyssum, in spots that best fill out the design.
4. Plant ground cover plants, like creeping thyme or sweet pea, along the front edge 1 to 2 feet apart. Allow these plants to trail back toward the middle of the border.
5. Care for the new plants by watering during dry, hot summer days and removing any faded blooms to encourage color blooms all summer.
It is easy to add a little color along a fence. There is an endless choice of flowers from which you can choose. As long as you follow the pattern of placing the tallest flowers in the back and shortest in front, you can create the border using any color or flower shapes you desire.
Landscaping A Fence Line
Let the professional landscape team at Fernandez and Sons design a garden along a fence line using flowers, shrubs or small trees for you. From simple fence line landscaping to large and lavish landscapes, we can offer all types for all property needs. Then, when hiring Fernandez and Sons for all of your landscape design, installation, and maintenance, you can sit back, relax, and have peace of mind knowing your landscape is in the best hands.
Contact Fernandez and Sons today to get started. In addition to offering all types of landscaping, we provide excellent masonry work. Outdoor kitchens, patios, decks, walkways, paver driveways, you name it, if it’s masonry work, we do it all.
We are located in Morristown New Jersey. Our services cover all of Morris County and the areas beyond.