We have an ugly chain link fence on our corner lot. On the outside, on the east side, I have a trumpet vine, turk's cap, coral honeysuckle and passion vine. In the front, south-facing side, I have 2 pride of barbados, a yellow trumpet vine and a coral honeysuckle. Each is surrounded by a little semi-circle of mulch with a brick border. I hope eventually they'll cover up the fence.

On the inside of the fence, I've made a mulch border about 1.5ft wide (wider in some places) that runs the entire length of the fence. which has various xeriscape plants, and under the large crepe myrtles are purple hearts.

The outside was a mess (big ditch left over from the city's work on sidewalks). I'm finally trying to clean that up. Should I do the same mulch 1.5ft wide border all along with more plants on the outside as well? Or should I let the grass fill in?

I've got some pictures on my blog (see link below). The first is the outside, where I just filled in some dirt into what was a ditch. The city threw some Bermuda down when they ran out of the St. Augustine, after putting in sidewalks. Next week I'll be laying some Bermuda sod in the front lawn, and am sure to have some left over. Should I use it along the outside fence? My only worry is that the fence isn't a good barrier, and the grass will creep inside in no time.

Also, what's a good material that's easy (and cheap) to use for a border? So far I've used mostly brick, just because we had a ton of it laying around. I started off using that rubbery-plasticy 'eco' edge and don't like it at all. In theory it'll all be uniform eventually, but $$ is an issue so I've just used the materials I've had on hand. I'm out of the brick though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Border fence