HIGH OR LOW FENCES?

Evening Star, Issue 19666, 20 September 1927, Page 2

HIGH OR LOW FENCES?

USE OF THE BORDER I have been asked more than once recently if I approve of tho abolition of the garden lenco or the substitution of a concrete kerb or shrub border (writes Edna Walling, in the Australian ‘Home Beautiful’). It would seem that the answer to this question would depend on whether the unobstructed vision of a suburban garden over a three or four foot fence is appreciated, or whether the thrill of joy experienced when an experimental “peer” through a chance crack in a high fence (revealing a garden of shady seclusion and peace) is not a sign that, after all, real gardens are places of seclusion, as all the best dictionaries toll ns.

The blatant publicity resulting from loiv fences is cheerfully horn—nay, enjoyed!—by those wishing to Haunt horticultural achievements; but tho true gardener will want the protection of high walls and fom-es, both from the devastating winds, as well as from the public 4 gazc. So it is greatly a matter of one’s personal point of view. As to the subject of “ no fences,” so dear to the minds of some Americans and not a few besides, Grace Tabor says, in her book on landscape gardening: “Happily wo are outgrowing the affectation that led us a decade or so ago to such violations of good .sense as the total elimination of hedges, fences, and all other visible evidences of limits.”