Full sun plants should do fine there since afternoon sun will be at least 6 hours. I'll let others weigh in on the deer resistant aspect.

Can you add info on what your soil pH, texture an moisture levels are? How large an area are you talking about, both the depth of the bed that you are thinking about and how long it is? What is planted there currently?

Deer resistant perennials for sun include Achillea, Pardancanda, Coreopsis, Ornamental grasses, Agastaches, Verbascums, Salvias, Irises. There are lots of others, but that should get you started.

Is a 10 ft border fence even legal? I just learned from our town code officer that there's a 4 ft limit on roadfront fences and 6 ft on sides. This even applies to netting run from tree to tree here in deer country. Just wondering..

Thanks all!!!! I'm heartbroken about this D--- fence. We had a 5 year landscape plan drawn up last spring and had completed year 1. There was a lovely view of the forest and now this.

But- as far as plantings, I'm most concerned about heat tolerance, the lack of air circulation, and the deer. There should be enough sun for full sun plants. I JUST removed 2 trees, cleared the sod, and hauled in fortified soil and compost for that area last fall. I planted forsythia and viburnum (which I'll now need to move) and seeded with black-eyed susans and native grasses (which now wont survive because the seeded area was stompled by construction workers). There are also 3 baby spirea. A honeysuckle is temporarily placed.

The length of the area is 60ft. I'd prefer Something fairly tall, say 5ft. Oh- and there is a black walnut tree close by that drops walnuts into this area.

ph is slightly alkaline. Native soil is clay. Slight slope. For the beds I mixed 6 inches of mature compost and fortified soil, covered it with newspaper, then layered on another 6 inches and covered with thin cardboard, added 4 inches and burlapped.

kit- I lived in your area for awhile. So beautiful! I'll check the codes. I'm 99% sure he checked all that before building but it's worth a try.

i would buy a few perennials ... and a majority of annuals ... and spend a season understanding your circumstances ...

perhaps you are making presumptions that may or may not occur ..

yo might also consider some small trees to create some level of shade for the future ... or a larger tree out in the lawn ...

ken

I agree with Ken. It would be sensible to put in annuals or perennials and watch for a season. Fences like that are normal over here and are not particularly problematical. We have small plots and like our privacy. If the fence was put up in fall the sun will have been low since then. You won't know for a full year how much sun you get in spring and summer. Nor will you know what the view will look like when the trees are in leaf. I would be much more concerned by the row of conifers I see peeking over the fence. Now they really could impact your light.

Now that I see the fence, the conifer screen rising behind, and the house they will block for you, I urge you to set aside your prior vision and embrace the future. It is a very handsome fence! You may have had a view of the forest, but it was dominated by the view of the back of their house and who knows what else - kiddie pools, shirtless men fixing cars, yapping curs, garbage cans, and who knows what else. Try to appreciate that you have just won the lottery - really, a gorgeous fence that will be a backdrop for the new border you will now set to designing, plus the trees that will give you a gorgeous green sanctuary. If you read all the posts here of people struggling against time and money to achieve this effect, you may see it differently. Get yourself some garden porn (how about Ken Druse's new book on shade gardens?) and start dreaming about the paradise you are halfway home to....

Thanks for talking me off the ledge! You are right, of course!

I was just about to type the same thing that kitsasei did - 10 feet seems like wow high - I think the limit around here is 6 feet (more or less). That being said, they do say that good fences make good neighbours; as floral said, in our area we are used to all manner of fencing (I would actually find it strange if there were none).

You mentioned that your native black eyes susans and grasses won't survive due to being stomped on...well, I'm a newbie gardener, but from what I've seen, many natives are survivors, so I'm sure some will find a way :-) Even if not, I'm sure you could probably throw down some seed now and have the winter do the seed stratification thing and they'll be up right as rain for the spring (seed experts may need to weigh in here...). Or throw some full grown plants in the spring and they will fill in. By the way, what do you mean by "lack of air circulation"?

Come back off the ledge...we need you!

I walk all over my black eyed susans. In fact, I show them no respect whatsoever and they continue to grow & multiply.

That fence would annoy me. I would need to plant a couple of hollies in front of it right away this spring. Most perennials top out below five feet tall so a perennial border is going to leave you with five feet of bare fence to look at. It's a nice, new fence but I would still want some coverage. That green wall of thujas that your neighbor planted is a bit much, you just need a couple of hollies or arbs to break up the space.

Change is tough, isn't it? As others have said, as fences go this one is handsome and it will weather to a less obtrusive gray color. In planning your long-term plantings, I'd give a bit of room between the fence and the plants which will both reduce any future trampling as maintenance is done and give plants room to grow gracefully rather than one-sided. It will also reduce the root competition from the arborvitaes on the other side of the fence.

Annual vines might be part of the answer for you for this coming season. I really like scarlet runner beans which have clusters of red flowers that the hummingbirds appreciate. The young beans are edible as green beans and will encourage continued flowering if picked, and if you leave some pods to mature and dry later in the season, they are both beautiful and edible as dried beans. Since I am assuming that you won't want to fasten to the fence, a support structure will be needed but can range from as simple as poles with string to something more sophisticated or permanent that can be reused elsewhere in your permanent design.

Re whether to attach to fence, again, check your town code enforcement. Where I am, if a fence is on the line, with no space left for the property owner to maintain it (at least a foot, plus access to it), it is a boundary fence that is effectively shared. You can't damage it, of course, but you could feel free to let vines on your side cling to it. No need to erect something else in front of it.

If you are having problems with deer, I would match that fence the rest of the way around my back yard. It is a very pretty fence and 10 feet will keep the deer out.

WOW! Y'all are superuberduper! Suddenly I love The Fence. I love The Fence. I love The Fence. I love The Fence.

Scarlet runner beans...hollies.... What type of holly? I don't know holly. Although I know deer won't eat it. Scarlet runner beans- will deer munch on them? The Fence is effectively re-routing the herd away from the neighbor and through my yard. Lots of hoof prints out there this morning.

Yes, deer eat holly. I agree that the thing to do now is finish fencing in your yard.

And deer do eat beans. Sorry!

The deer in my neighborhood are both plentiful and illiterate. I've scrutinized numerous lists of deer resistant plants and mail ordered said plants only to have them consumed by deer. Deer aren't supposed to eat holly or azaleas but in a cold winter, mine do. Mine also eat pachysandra and lirope when times get hard. The HOA says "no fences higher than 3 feet" so my deer strategy has been to eliminate deer candy (hostas and daylilies), grow the tomatoes in pots on the deck and select deer resistant shrubs and perennials hoping for the best. You're lucky to be able to fence in your yard. I think it takes an 8 foot fence to keep deer out. I've seen fences with a solid portion for the first six feet and lattice for two feet along the top.

The boards on that fence look suspiciously like green wood to me, unless they have been protected with something. A fence like that wouldn't last long in western Ks, not with our wind. Also I can't tell if they are wood posts or covered with wood. At least you got the pretty side. I have a new shadow fence on the south side of my yard, 6 ft is our limit, but since every yard on this block drops a foot, it is really 7 feet. The reason for this fence is I'm trying to block out all the soccor balls that find their way into my yard. What a nuisance, last year I lost a lot of my vege plants, and have a broken tree peony, a flying soccor ball can do a lot of damage, and now another pest has invaded. I think every child around me got a drone for Christmas, Of course they don't know how to control them, so I'm constantly having to fish one out of shrubs ect. This is going to be a whole new way to garden along this fence. I've been watching the shadow line for a month now, and trying to figure how much sun I will have, of course it will be ever changing as the season progresses. I'm hoping I can plant daylilys and clematis this spring, I need to break up this 100 foot of new thats staring at me. half of the 100 feet will be in my vege garden. I'm afraid I've built myself a gardening nightmare. Help!