The fences we construct — picket, split rail, stockade, hedgerow, wrought iron, chain link, stone – serve a purpose. They provide protection around the pool, or privacy around a family’s patio, or conceal an unsightly scene, as in enclosing utilitarian equipment, or announce another space: this is our place, as apart from the street, the pasture, as apart from our property, the garden, as apart from the yard. In all instances fences divide, enclose, exclude — the only invitation, the opening within them.

Any opening in the wall, fence, hedgerow invites visitors. Without it, there is no entry into the inner realm. Whether it’s as slim as a stile in a stonewall, or as expansive as the space that permits a truck’s entrance in the driveway, the opening is the statement that one is welcome to enter the place a fence has pronounced, with its presence, as a special, private, intimate one. We have many of these invisible gates in our lawn – either end of the corridor of the grape arbor, the trellis in another garden, the un-railed portion of the gazebo, a break in a row of shrubs.

A garden gate emphasizes the opening, the welcome, enhances the message the gardener wants to express. Consideration of design, therefore, is important and rests with the perspective of the visitor. Opening into garden rooms, the gate beckons us to the beyond, hence it suggests more strongly at what’s next than even the glimpse we get of the garden itself.

The materials we use for the gate follow the same principles we use when selecting a fence. Spilt rails, stockades, picket fences, stonewalls, wrought iron, brick – these coordinate with the property’s natural surroundings and its dominant structure – the house. The closer to the home, the more its architecture dictates the style, for example a house and its cottage garden hemmed in with a picket fence and accessed through a wooden gate. The further from the house and the closer to the environs, the more the natural world’s influences, such as a split rail fence and its rustic, corral gate opening onto a pasture. And though the gate must compliment the fence, its material and style are not as restricted. Walls of stone, brick, or shrubbery necessarily utilize different materials. Either wrought iron or wood are suitable and determine the formality of the garden more than the wall itself. A stone wall, for example, can be viewed as formal or informal, depending on its gate and its plantings. When considering the demarcation of boundaries, the gate, therefore, is part of the original deliberation.

The level of privacy and the degree of formality are the first considerations of a fence; these are usually prescribed by its purpose. Enclosing an outdoor living area is dependent on the amount of privacy desired around the pool, the patio, or the deck. A stockade fence affords the most privacy, and its gate either emphasizes it with solid panels, or lessens it with lattice or a window offering a small invitation. Similarly, the impenetrable hedgerows, tall stone or brick walls surrounding estates are usually embellished with wrought iron gates which provide the most formality, as well as a slight glimpse of the property. The least formal, the split rails, usually at the property’s perimeters, and the pickets, with their swinging wooden gates, often used to enclose a vegetable garden or to further the charm of the entrance to the house, are also the friendliest.

As in all structures and objects in the garden, from the weightiest wall to the tiniest wind chime, gates have a role as ornamentation. Ornate wrought iron elevates the elegance of the entire property. Picket fences have decorative effects on houses, though they are strong architectural features, particularly when painted white. Gates are always at least somewhat of a focal point, as visitors are drawn to them to reach the garden. Imagine the impact of a colorful gate in a stone or brick wall. Sometimes gates are works of art in themselves, enhanced with knobs, hinges, latches; a whimsical design hints at the delightfulness of the garden beyond. Gates can also compliment and contrast with gardens to strong visual effect. Envision a gate painted with a pale color opening into the darkness of the greenery beyond it, or a darkly colored gate contrasting with the brightness of the garden it leads to.

It is essential that fences and their gates blend harmoniously with the plants underlining, rising along, and sometimes splaying over them, the formality of the structure dependent in large part on the plantings. The sculptured, symmetrical plants framing the wrought iron gate in a brick or stone wall emphasize the invitation while maintaining the formality. Conversely, our stone wall is softened with ferns and hostas, the daffodils sprinkled at its feet in spring, and the basket of pansies at the entrance. The gate in a stockade fence can either emphasize the expectation of privacy if framed with firethorn or bearberry, or temper it with billowy, flowering shrubs such as viburnum or hydrangea. The message of the picket fence and gate opening into a cottage garden is furthered with cushions of catmint and lady’s mantle, spears of lupine and digitalis, twining clematis and roses. The least formal are split rails, their gates most commonly an opening in the fence, the naturalness of their construction necessitating native plantings, azaleas and honeysuckle, golden rod and daisies.

Gates serve important roles in our gardens. They strike the necessary balance between the privacy the fence evokes and the invitation the gate extends. Responsible for the transition between street and private property, lawn and field, yard and garden, gates consider the visitor’s view, rather than the gardener’s. Setting the tone of the space prior to entry, it’s the gate that tempts the guest to see, with a welcoming hint of it, what comes next.

Dayna McDermott