From what I've read on the deck forum, a clear finish will not slow down graying. I have cedar fence around my house. I let it gray. Every 3 or 4 years I gently pressure wash it. If you are not careful, pressure washing will remove the soft parts of the wood. If you do decide on a stain, then be prepared to renew it every other year. Too much work, IMHO.

You can stain the fence if you like that look and want a particular color. Or you can leave it to weather to a gray color. Depends on how you want it to look. If you mulch near the fence, keep the mulch off the wood, as it will cause the fence to rot out prematurely. Plant selection is the last thing you do when planning a landscape. There are a lot of recent discussions about blank slates, how to start, and a thread about a FAQ that is partly tongue-in-cheek and partly valuable information. You can read for those an overview of the design process. You need to know what you want from this area before you can do any planning, how much time you want to spend maintaining it, how much you want to spend improving it, and what the needs of your family are. There are probably dozens of different ways to treat this area, and when you add the plant and other materials possible, thousands of combinations. Telling you to plant this or that is not really helpful at this point, with no design in mind.

mrmichaeljmoore, I've successfully used products with sodium percarbonate as its' main ingredient. Real course bristle brush mounted to a broom stick. Pour solution into a bucket and dip the brush into the bucket and start scrubbing. After about five minutes a chemical reaction occurs and the mold and mildew begins to liquify. Then I give it another quick brushing and hose it off clean. Let air dry. Its really quite easy. Good luck. All the best, The PorchGuy Remember that this cleaning proceedure is safe to area plants but they should constantly be kept wet and sprayed down during the cleaning as often as possible. Here is a link that might be useful: My Album

in Missouri--everybody seems to swear by TWP and TWP will tell you to wait 4 or more months to do anything to your fence--let it weather to gray---then wash/brighten it--let it dry and THEN stain and seal it If you go clear---it will weather back to gray in no time flat---the solids in the stain are what provide the UV protection and fight the weathering