Catnap and Patricia, I just love your yards and those beautiful flowers. Maybe this summer I will plant flowers in vases for my backyard and front yard. Due to living in a townhouse, only the townhouse complex can plant flowers in the yard I was told. I love flowers so much and both of your chosen flowers are just so gorgeous and I love that the ones Patricia chose are fragrant. Oceanna, I wish I could help you on the fence but I never had a fence and I am not sure what will look best but I love Catnap's white picket fence.

It looks good natural. Or you could choose a color and paint your front door the same for a tie in. Perhaps a darker green or a grayish medium to dark blue? If you’re bold, black could work. The green of plants really pops against a dark fence. Whatever color you choose it can be complemented with new or repainted porch accessories, door color, pots, etc. Even a showy plant or shrub to echo the color.

I think it is not true that stain lasts longer. Physically, it's much thinner. I think people think it lasts longer because as it wears, it is not as noticeable as if paint flakes off. I also think that there are paints of variable durability. I wouldn't use anything but high gloss acrylic (which does not really look high gloss, but does look and stay cleaner.) The idea that one must paint every two years is not my experience. I think good paint will last at least 8 to 10 years, but a lot depends on the prep and the wood. I've never been a fan of the decayed wood look and think painted wood looks infinitely better. After all, who would leave the wood siding on their house to decay on purpose? No one.

I have an old 6' tall wood fence around my house. It has been painted previously but some of the paint is peeling off the wood. The color of the paint is an off white to match my house. I am pressure washing the fence to speed up paint removal. What would best preserve the fence - paint or stain?