I don't see why not. Some housing areas have zoning restrictions or covenants and do not allow front fencing. Sometime you can do it with a shorter height fence. Look around at other homes and in books to see what might "go" with your ranch house. I have seen picket fences used in corners or to enclose an area close to the house, and with daylillies or other cottagey plants. I think it looks great!
I actually have some old discarded pickets in a pile behind my back yard fence, my husband keeps trying to get rid of them, but I am determined at some point to salvage, repaint, and use them somewhere on my property. Let us all know if you do it!

I put an arbor/arch with a short piece of picket on each side.

{{gwi:633087}}

how cute! i love it, nat! where did you get the arbor?

I bought it at Big Lots this past summer. You know how they are, some times they have things and 2 days later they don't.
BTW this is the house I am selling. Anyone moving to San Antonio, TX?
If I see them again, I will let you know.

wow, thanks!

I love S.A. - nice city:)

go right ahead and put that picket fence around your house! It will look good!
I have that same arch from Big lots.It was $99.00. Theyll have them again in the spring.

tHIS WAS THE BEST I COULD DO. THIS IS SOMEONE ELSES CAMERA. i HAVE ONE NOW. jUST GOTTA LEARN HOW TO WORK IT! lol

ohgirl,I think you forgot the pictures!! LOL

teacher mom, ihave a ranch house,not brick,and i have a picket fence all around the front.Here's a picture.

Kathi

oh, i love that, too! thanks!

Red brick house and picket fence? So traditional everyone will feel a touch of deja vu when they see it. If that is what you want, you go right ahead. I'm rather fond of picket fences myself, especially sturdy ones with the support boards laid flat so your cat can walk around on them.

Rosefolly

i dont know how i forgot the picture. I'll try again.
Sometimes its tricky posting pictures on GW!

I have a red brick Bungalow with white trim around the eaves and white pillars out front. I built a 5 ft. white picket fence around the front yard (I have two huge dogs to keep in). My eldest son & I built a white arbor and gate that leads out to my Japanese Koi pond/garden. I planted English Ivy that has grown up on the arbor and under the cedars down on the front and up on the brick columns of the front porch. I have yellow Lady Banks roses growing up onto the front porch. The front door is Christmas red and the shutters on either side are my favorite green.
My back yard is where my best cottage gardens are located as the front yard is too hot and too dry in summer and the dust boils up off the road, but I have evergreen landscape plants and roses and a huge, ancient lilac bush. I have Spring bulbs and grow Garden Phlox and in mid-Spring there are tall Larkspurs with deep blue spires. White flowering Bridle's Wreath and yellow flowering Forsythia grows along the fence row with pink and white fairy roses and Red Blaze climbing roses on the fence, and whatever else I can poke in there to fill in spaces.

I have to rebuild my fence this year and paint it (ugh), but I love the look of an abandoned, ancient garden that has overgrown its boundaries and has run a muck!

I like it, and that's what counts as far as I am concerned.

The link below shows how my yard changes every year. A lot depends upon the weather each year, what I grow and what I don't.

~ sweetannie4u

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Cottage Garden in Oklahoma