The 10 Best Garden Fences

Editor's Notes

May 27, 2020:

During this round of updates, while the Fashion Willow, Terra Life Westchester, Easy Gardener and Crafted Pro all needed to be removed due to availability issues, we added several new options to our list, including the Garden Land Climbing Lattices — an expandable section of riveted willow branches, the Master Garden Products NBF-24 — a picket-style bamboo fence, and the Amagabeli Garden & Home FC05 – a powder-coated iron option that’s available in several ornate styles.

A few things to think about for this category:

Installation: Conveniently, most options in this category are simple enough install and, if you’re a fan of putting your garden fence in a storage shed over winter, uninstall. While options like the Zippity No-Dig feature an integrated stake on every section, others like the Amagabeli Garden & Home FC05 come with separate stakes that run through eyelets on the edge of each panel, connecting the fencing and securing it to the ground at the same time. Clever selections, like the Sunnydaze Decor Store Spear Top and WamBam Zippity, employ long stakes – 38 inches, in the case of the spear top – that run through multiple eyelets, which can help quite a lot in terms of unifying the fence and fostering stability.

Inconveniently, not all models are designed with a simple stake system in mind, and some will be a bit more challenging to install. The Garden Land Climbing Lattices and Master Garden Products NBF-24, for example, will require posts or some other form of non-integral vertical support, which can significantly complicate their installation process.

Security: Is this garden fence purely an aesthetic addition to your yard space? Or, is it intended as a practical defense against rabbits and other invasive critters? While models like the Panacea Classica and Amagabeli Garden & Home FC05 can look quite good, the former has a four-inch gap between bars, and the latter leaves a seven-inch space below its panels, leaving your vegetables vulnerable to animal intruders. In this sense, options like the Yardgard 889250A and WamBam Zippity might be a superior choice, as they offer more of a robust barrier.

Length: The intrinsic gift and the curse of modular fence systems, which are so common in this category, is that they go in a few feet at a time. While this goes a long way in helping installation go quickly, it also severely limits your options in terms of the total size and shape of your fence. For example, if your fence comes in three-foot sections, and you want a garden that measures eight feet by eight feet, you’ll be stuck picking between a garden that measures nine feet by nine feet, or six feet by nine feet, or six feet by six feet. This is an unwanted compromise, and in many circumstances it makes certain options prohibitive. If you’re handy, and working with a metal fence system, you might be able to make it out this situation with the help of an angle grinder, but for stake-and-eyelet models this is problematic, as you’ll be left with no ready means of anchoring your shortened end piece.

While we’ve already flagged the Master Garden Products NBF-24 and Garden Land Climbing Lattices for having their own issues when it comes to installation, one of their saving graces is that they’re quite easy to get around a corner with. In the case of the former, a circular saw will be necessary. But in the case of the latter, you can simply wrap it around a post and keep going, as its panels are flexible.