Fences Should Not Be Visible in Urban Gardens – To what extent do you agree?

I'll sit on the fence.

 

Can you give us a clue what are you asking

 

“Good fences make good neighbours”. I wish my neighbours would replace the boundary fence between our houses (their responsibility) and not rely on our bit of sweet pea netting (and gain six inches of garden from us).

 

It's in the thread title.

I have no objection to seeing fence, though I would rather it was upright and not listing at a 45 degree angle. Maybe that's the bit @LawnAndOrder sat on.

 

I think what the questioner means is: “Do you like having to look at fences in a garden, or would you prefer that they were hidden by plants, ivies, or such like? Some may regard fences as negative symbols: separation, hostility (“Keep Out”), etc., or dislike the limiting, often narrowing, stark (often unattractive washed-out grey), or inorganic look of them, immediately behind more curvaceous, gentle and biological characteristic … I believe those may be implied in the question (?).

 

Is the OP suggesting that all gardens should be bounded by hedges? Totally impractical to my mind. Or are they suggesting that all gardens should be open plan so that anybody can go anywhere they want. Fences serve many purposes from simply acting as windbreak, to somewhere to grow plants up, through to a barrier from neighbours you don't want to have to deal with. The fences both sides of my garden are 3 ft high. One of my neighbours put a 6 ft fence between him and the neighbours on the other side, and I don't blame him. The woman who moved into that house probably had Halloween as her birthday.
If the concern is simply the visual impact of fences how should they be masked?

 

Ooooh,

Oooooh, you have indeed opened a can of worms there! Many a temper has been lost, calculators have lost count of unresolvable disputes regarding fence ownership; solicitors have lost their Latin trying to unravel conundrums best described by Land Registries answering irate letters with the infuriating: “The deeds are SILENT”! The only way you can, in law, stipulate ownership with certainty is if, on the official plan of the Title Deeds of the respective properties, the portions of fences under scrutiny are marked with either an “H” or a “c”, or sometimes another letter or identification mark of their choice (!) – these are extremely rare where “domestic” properties are concerned. Do you have said indication on the plan of your Title Deeds?

 

And the title deeds frequently have the boundaries marked using a fat black felt pen (I can imagine the office junior with tongue stuck out in concentration as he tries to mark out the curtilage). The width of the line could be enough to cause quite an argument...

 

Yup.

 

Re your “a bird in the hand makes a hell of a mess”

There is a wonderful story Alfred Hitchcock used to love to tell, although I am not sure it can receive a “U” certificate from Gardeners Corner.

Jessica Tandy was an esteemed cast member in “The Birds”. She was particularly apprehensive of a sequence where she was to be confronted by countless birds whom she had described as Those hysterical creatures.

Her situation was greatly exacerbated by the fact that the scenes involving the animals had to be filmed in confined, netted spaces so that the flyers didn’t, with every take, scatter all over the sound stage. This had been found to be extremely stressful by the entire cast.

I’ll attempt to replicate Hitchcocks’ inimitable cadences and dotted rhythms.

After Jessica Tandy had suffered through multiple takes, Hitch, whose humour was often tinged with a soupçon of naughtiness approached the nervous actress in a disingenuous attempt to reassure her and appease her increasing anxiety, saying: Now, Jessica, I want you to be particularly careful … if a bird should attempt to fly up your skirt, I want you to grab it and hold onto it as hard as you can … because … a bird in the hand … is far better than a bird … … …!

 

In that case, you should have no problem enforcing the law.

 

They just won’t buy and put up fencing. End of. No point in bringing the law into it. That would only make for other problems.

By the way, Alfred Hitchcock was not a nice man at all. Cruel to women and cruel to animals.

https://collider.com/the-birds-production-history-explained/

 

Yup.

I can think of a few more!

 

Boundaries are more often marked with a 'T' on deeds, inward facing if they are yours, outwards facing if not.

There is nothing to stop an owner from erecting their own fences on their side of the boundary, as long as they don't mind losing a few inches of their land.

 

There is nothing to stop them, indeed, other than perhaps their bank balance or, as is probably more often the case, the galling feeling of having to fork out for someone else's disingenuousness.