Plenty of us have dreams of white picket fences but are on chainlink budgets. Whether you’re installing a fence on your own or moving into a space with a chain link barrier already installed, it can feel overwhelming and oppressive, but there’s an easy way to make it into a gorgeous part of the garden. Instead of thinking of these as downgraded versions of the fence you want, think of them as a lovely garden trellis that surrounds your entire yard! The possibilities are endless when you make this shift.
Many vining plants thrive against trellises, from flowers to shrubs, fruit bushes, and even vegetables. You can give a canopying effect by weaving the branches into the chain diamonds or using the fence as a support for new, fragile sprouts and stalks. This is an especially great choice if you don’t have a ton of garden beds dug out or just want to work with what you already have. As many of these plants are quite dense, especially while blossoming, they can even provide organic privacy and affordably conceal the chainlink fence. As with any gardening project, keep the soil, light exposure, and climate of your fence when planting around a chain link fence, and be prepared to do regular maintenance on this area of the yard.
Transform your fence into a vertical garden
This hack doesn’t require a ton of extra supplies beyond your desired plants and veggies, but here are a few tips for getting started. For one, if you’re new to gardening and aren’t sure how to space some plants out, consider growing them from starters rather than from seeds. This will prevent overcrowding and unpredictable growth between the plants. Plus, by working with starters, you can secure the stems of the plants to the chainlink fence with twine, zip ties, rods, and so on, allowing you to control and direct each plant’s direction as well as provide additional support to any flimsy stems.
If you aren’t ready to start a garden from scratch or want a more low-key approach, try hanging potted plants from the fence. This is a wonderful choice if you have some small herb and flower plants indoors that you’d like to transfer outdoors with the option to bring them back in at the end of the warm seasons!
You should also prep the area around the fence before planting your seeds. Whether you’ve got regular grass, patchy weeds, or nothing more than dirt by your fence, it’s important to prep the earth so the plants can thrive. Buying an appropriate topsoil and fertilizer can go a long way to making sure your chainlink garden thrives.
What to grow in your chainlink fence garden
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You don’t need something as grand as a Nancy Meyers-esque Hampton farm or even a proper garden bed to grow a thriving vegetable and fruit garden. Look for compatible vining plants that will grow upwards rather than outwards, keeping your garden contained to the fenced area. Some great veggies for this include tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini. Gourds may typically grow out in patches, but with a little support and direction, they can do quite well in a vertical garden. Melons, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, and blackberries can also be trained to grow along a fence if you want something a little sweet in the mix.
Of course, you can also plant plenty of beautiful flowers and vine shrubs. These would make for a stunning, unexpected display, and if given enough time to grow and thrive, make for a one-of-a-kind privacy fence. Some solid flower species would be morning glory (Ipomoea), honeysuckle (Lonicera), sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), trumpet vine (Campsis radicans), climbing roses, and wisteria. If you don’t want to have to replant these blossoms the next year, look for perennial varieties, which will come back even after a dormant period.
