If in doubt paint it black.

Caroline Garland, a renowned London garden designer, was one of the first garden designers in South London to paint fences black.

Every one of these photos is a Caroline Garland design

The fence above is a new fence but you can see this same fence in the photograph below. It is on the right. The back fence is an old fence with lime trees pretty much embedded in it. In order to give synergy to the old and the new fence we painted them both black and it is now difficult to differentiate between old and new.

We use a wood preservative rather than an exterior paint. There are various interesting wood preservative colours but black is surprisingly effective.

Here there is a new fence painted black. It makes the garden look sharper and a small garden benefits from a black fence as it makes the garden look larger. Difficult to believe, but it is true.

Here you can see the same fence with the planting growing up beside it. The fence is very unobtrusive and the greens and whites look fabulous beside it.

This is a tiny garden. The shed was rather large but it was tailor made to fit four bicycles and a scooter. Because it was so large we painted it black which ‘loses’ it, so that it does not overpower the garden.

This fence is in a front drive. It has completely sharpened up the drive by having the fencing painted black.

Here above is a fine example of give the back of an old fence a new lease of life by a good coat of black wood preservative.

On the left of the garden the fence is brand new and on the right hand side the fence is old and we are seeing the back of it. By painting them both black they almost match!

Very contemporary, very stark but very effective. Black fencing, cedar wood trellis and benching with white rendered walls and fine limestone paving.

Here the old fence has been painted black and instead of sharpening up the fence it has softened it. The green looks wonderful up against it and the fence (although not good looking) is not drawing attention to itself. All the attention goes on the planting and seating area.

Again, the back of an old fence. What are you noticing? The black fence or the water feature, black basalt paving and coping and planting?

A tiny garden made to look larger by the use of mirrors and black fencing.

This is fabulous way of disguising an old fence. The walls have been roughly whitewashed and the raised beds have porcelain coping. The tiling on the ground is effective and matches the wooden bench. The planting is still immature but will look quite tropical eventually. The black fencing will go unnoticed. |

A large Wandsworth garden transformed by new design but the fencing is old – hardly noticeable as it has been painted black. All the emphasis is on the new limestone paving, pergola and planting.