Boundary and skin
Living fence
farm housing school park street edge
A line of planted trees or shrubs that serves as a fence, on its own or as living posts that hold a wire.
What it solves
It marks the boundary, gives shade, slows wind and dust, holds the soil and shelters birds and insects. Living posts do not rot like dead timber ones, something valuable in the humid tropics.
Today
Plant native multipurpose species that give shade, fruit, fodder or timber. Combine them with shrubs to form a dense living edge.
Common mistake
Cutting living fences down to the ground or replacing them with mesh and concrete, which loses shade and wildlife.
Tomorrow
Living fences link parks, farms and streams as corridors for birds, squirrels and butterflies. In the city they can replace blank walls and lower the heat of the street.
Where it comes from
- 1Neolithic farmers Europe, 4,000 to 6,000 years ago
The first hedges enclosed cereal fields. - 2Frankish kingdom France, 864
Dense hawthorn hedges served as defenses, to the point that King Charles the Bald complained about those who planted them without permission. - 3Mesoamerican agriculture from southern Mexico to Colombia, including Costa Rica, traditional use of diffuse origin
Madero negro (Gliricidia sepium), native to the region, is planted from cuttings as a living post and also fixes nitrogen in the soil.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Boundary and skin
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.