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Sustainable fences - The best tips

Sustainable Fences for Home and Garden: 10 Types and Tips

Want to know more about sustainable fences? Then you've come to the right place! You're probably in the middle of planning your garden - or your garden could do with a new boundary. Either way, it's great that you can replace your fence or maybe even your entire garden. Build garden sustainably you want. Decisive for its ecological value is above all the most durable and weatherproof material possible, but also the design and use of the fence.

In this article, I would like to introduce you to suitable fences and give you valuable tips on how to implement them. Let's go!

  1. Wood fence
  2. Stone wall
  3. Willow fence
  4. Log cabin fence
  5. Gabions
  6. Metal fence
  7. Attach plants
  8. Grow birdhouse and bee hotel
  9. Stacking wood on the fence
  10. Allow to grow over

1. wooden fence

Sustainable fence made of wood for the garden

Wood is a sustainable, renewable raw material - and this alone makes it more environmentally friendly than many other building materials. Appropriate fences are available in all colors and shapes - whether as opaque Board fence or as bound together Picket fence. If you build your garden fence yourself, you can even build recesses and cut-outs in it that can be used as food or water sources for various animals and insects.

Old Euro pallets can also be used as a fence for your garden with a new coat of paint and a little creativity. The wood of the pallets is usually free of toxins and you can use them Embellish with nesting aids and flower pots. This makes your garden fence extra sustainable and also helps to keep the Stop species extinction.

Important: To ensure that your wooden fence in the garden lasts as long as possible and is truly sustainable, you should (regularly) paint it with a natural glaze - e.g. natural resin oil.

2. stone wall

Pure, lifeless gravel gardens are the opposite of sustainable. Nevertheless, even in an environmentally conscious garden you can naturally - durable, dimensionally stable and visually appealing - work with stones. Instead of fencing in your garden, you can also use a stone wall in some places, for example. for privacy and a clear boundary provide. Deliberately build in cavities that provide a nesting place for insects, for example. Stone walls with crevices and slits are also a popular habitat for some small animal species.

Insider tip double-skin wall: Soil is filled between two parallel stone walls, turning your garden fence into a biotope! The soil can be planted as required and thus become a habitat, nesting and feeding place for numerous animal species. This form of garden border may seem exotic at first glance and also requires a little more preparatory work. However, the result is impressive.

3. willow fence

Another sustainable fence is the classic woven willow fence. A beautiful, dimensionally stable and, above all, "living" fence for your garden is ultimately created from interwoven willow branches. It continues to grow and blossom at the interfaces and is therefore a paradise for bees and other animals from the garden world.

4. log cabin fence

A fence made from untreated, thin logs laid on top of each other not only looks rustic. It also decomposes without leaving any residue after 10 to 20 years and can provide food for fungi and many types of insects during its lifetime. The trunks may not always be perfectly straight and therefore not completely opaque, but plants tend to climb up them particularly well, so that a As natural, wild, green, overall picture as possible can arise.

5. (Upcycling) metal fence

Elegant cast iron fence

Their durability makes metal fences like the Double bar fence, the aluminum fence or the cast iron fence. ultimately also environmentally friendly. The longer you nurture, care for and keep it, the more sustainable it is.

However, for example, at a scrap yard, you can get steel parts and then assemble them into a garden fence. Such a Upcycling project protects the environment and is sustainable, since already consumed, Natural resources can be reused. A fine example of truly sustainable fencing.

Chain link fence: Also with a coarse mesh Fence made of plastic-coated wire, you can border your garden in a completely natural way. The fence is sturdy and also serves as a climbing aid for a wide variety of plants. To help and protect animals, it makes sense for the wire mesh fence to start about 10 centimetres above the ground.

6. gabions

I personally find the wire racks filled with stones not so visually appealing - but gabions certainly have an ecological value. Between the stones placed on top of and next to each other habitable gapswhich provide shelter for many garden animals and insects in particular. However, it is important to choose larger stones or leave larger gaps between the stones.

Tip: Gabions can also be filled with wood, which often creates an even livelier "fence culture".

7. attach plants

Plants not only serve as privacy screens, but also as a source of food and a habitat for countless garden inhabitants. So give free rein to your creativity. Welded metal rings for flower pots to your metal fence or nail small, old wine crates filled with soil and wild flowers on your wooden fence. It doesn't have to be a creative miracle - ordinary, attached flower pots will do if you want to protect and support insects! 🙂

Tip: How to make a create a bee friendly gardenI'll show you in a separate blog post.

8. grow bird house and bee hotel

Plants provide them with food - classic insect hotels made of wood. They are also ideal for hanging on the fence, to provide nesting sites for bees and other insects. You can even build several insect hotels on top of each other to cover gaps in fences, for example. Even if we are talking about boundary fences here, there are at least no limits to your imagination.

9. stack wood on the fence

Wood can be stacked particularly well against a fence. The wood pile is then Privacy screen, animal protection, nesting opportunity, food source and species-rich small biotope all in one. The absolute jackpot for countless species of insects and fungi, but also for toads, mice, frogs, lizards, slow worms and birds. And if you don't want a whole pile of wood, then at least a little Deadwood - The animal garden dwellers love that!

10. allow to grow over

Let sustainable fences overgrown

Sustainable fences do not stand on their own - ideally, they are overgrown with climbing plants such as ivy, the morning glory or the firethorn. In this way, your fence becomes a protective habitat and ideally also serves as a source of food for many animals in the garden. At the same time, climbing plants make non-closed fences (such as metal fences with thin rods) much more attractive. opaque.

Tip: With what plants you can decorate your fence or, for example, your Leave the garden shed overgrown you can find out in the linked article.

Designing sustainable fences and protecting the environment

There are many ideas for a creative, sustainable and environmentally friendly garden fence - including the Combination with a revitalized hedge is of course possible.

Most of the tips in this article are relatively easy to implement and are good for the environment - and in the best case scenario, your wallet too. One more important principle to conclude: The more "permeable" and varied the fence material, the more animals and insects can feel at home in the fence or at least in the area around your garden boundary.

Do you have any questions or further tips? Then I look forward to your comment!

Stay sustainable,

Christoph from CareElite - Plastic-free living

PS: Want more gardening tips? Then take a look at my detailed article about the sustainable garden house. Have fun!

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* Links with asterisks are so-called Affiliate linksIf you click on it and buy something, you automatically and actively support my work with CareElite.de, as I receive a small share of the proceeds - and of course nothing changes in the product price. Many thanks for your support and best regards, Christoph!

Christoph Schulz

Christoph Schulz

I'm Christoph, an environmental scientist and author - and here at CareElite I'm campaigning against plastic waste in the environment, climate change and all the other major environmental problems of our time. Together with other environmentally conscious bloggers, I want to give you tips & tricks for a naturally healthy, sustainable life as well as your personal development.

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