Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

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Creative Fence Design – DIY ideas for your own front yard – Part 3

August 18, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

Here’s the 3rd installment to my earlier series of out-of-the-ordinary fence and gate designs.  Look at these creations – aren’t they amazing?  I found those on my recent trip to Missoula MT – and as you can see, there is no limit to the ideas and materials that can be used for diy landscape design projects – “re-purposed” or brand-new.   I don’t think the creators here have thought too hard about “sustainability”  or longevity – these are unabashedly temporary, ephemeral, fun.  If you feel inspired to build your own creation and like to share a photo of it, I’d be more than happy to post it here.

A wagon wheel makes a decorative fence element

A wagon wheel makes a decorative fence element

plywood with cut-out window and bamboo used in diy gate and fence design

Bamboo and plywood gate with star-shaped window paired in an original combination

empty glass bottles and pebbles make interesting diy fence

Re-purposed glass bottles, pebbles and incidental tree used in gabbion fence

Empty glass bottles catching the light in this gabbion fence

design idea for fence and gate with willow and bed frame

Bed-frame-and-willow-fence

Windows framing view through fence and gate

Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: diy landscape design, fence design, front yard landscape design, gabbion-fence, gate design

DIY Landscape Design: Creative Fences and Gates

May 23, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist

Good fences make good neighbors  -  and private gardens, too!

naturally rusted steel gate

Naturally rusted steel gate

Although blessed with a good amount of rain this past winter in San Diego, more and more people, in their desire to continue to conserve water, are deciding to retire the lawn in their front yard and are wondering how to landscape this area. (See also my post about lawn removal at  The Lawn Needs to Go, But What Then?) 

When I am asked to help with this, I inquire about the basic purpose: Is this for security?  Noise screening?  Or is it for a use that the homeowner until now didn’t have room for? I can think of many uses for this front yard: A play area with a tree-house or swing; a spa–refuge; a plant collector’s garden;  an outdoor breakfast nook; a quiet retreat for reading; a vegetable garden…

creative design for privacy fence

Cedar fence board mosaic

Boundaries are very useful to denote the special character of this outdoor “room”, and it can be achieved in different ways: Lacey shrubs like a sort of “see-through” curtain are sometimes all that’s needed, or one or several trellis lattices, placed between the use area and the public. If more privacy and seclusion are preferred, I design a wall, a fence, or a hedge, or a combination of man-made and natural elements.

On the visits in my clients’ communities I started to notice quite a few imaginative enclosures that I recorded with photos.  Based either on the preference of privacy that in my case has its roots in the memory of a romantic, hedge-enclosed childhood garden, or on the need for greater safety as in some urban and suburban neighborhoods, more and more front yards are being enclosed, and people are investing their creativity, talent and playfulness into original and attractive fences and gates. 

By now I have assembled a very nice collection of examples that I’d like to share here with you –  it’s a cool reference library where you, too, will perhaps find ideas for your own project. In the next post, I’ll be sharing more photos with you.  

fence design with woven wood

Woven fence detail

Filed Under: Landscape Design Tagged With: design ideas for fences, design of privacy enclosure, diy landscape design, fence design, landscape design San Diego, materials for privacy fences, wooden gate design, wooden gates

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Christiane, your design is beautiful. Viewers love the design and color. Thank you so much for all your support while the project was being developed. It would have been more stressful for me had you not held my hand regularly.

Rachel Michel

CHRISTIANE HOLMQUIST LANDSCAPE DESIGN


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