A beautiful fence frames a home much like a beautiful frame sets off a portrait. Until the work of art is framed (or fenced) there is always the sense that it is incomplete. Can you think of a single great estate in history that did not have a fence around it? Whether a fence is made of Gothic wrought iron, stately brick, homey white pickets, chain link or barbed wire… is a matter of personal preference, need and design. No matter how you look at it, an unfenced home is an unfinished home.
A home without a fence is also is not as safe as it would be were it fenced. Fences keep things in… and out. Poor Richard’s Almanac once reported that, “Good fences make good neighbors” and indeed, they do. They keep your dog on your property and his dog on his. As well as cows. And horses. Or children.
Lest you think fences are just for country squires, think again, for fences serve their purpose anywhere people live in proximity to one another. Even the great American west was unfenced until such time as enough people arrived to make the vast emptiness seem crowded! Metropolitan Fences place boundaries between the properties of a greater number of people than they do in the country, and protect an infinitely larger number of possessions.
With fences come gates, an entity in their own right. There are stationary gates. Double gates. Rolling gates and even invisible gates marked only by cattle guards. Gates in Milwaukee have seen many a housewife over the years pass the time of day with her neighbors, exchanging community gossip, recipes, plant cuttings and occasionally even passing a baby over for a closer look.
So whether your home is a tiny patch of townhouse grass or a thousand acres of rolling farmland, if you desire to show it to its best advantage, you need to install a fence. After which you need just the right gate, whether its purpose be to clang shut with cold finality, closing out the world, or a symbolic barrier you rejoice in throwing open with warmth as you welcome your friends and neighbors into your inner sanctum.