Are they denying people from putting fences on their own property? I'm in the woods too but have chain link around my back yard next to a fifteen foot divide the county says we cannot touch. There's even a manhole in my back yard for a storm drain that I put a wine barrel planter over so my dogs don't fall in if the top pops up when it rains hard. You can put a deer fence in that can easily be moved. We are unincorporated up here so many of the borders melt into woods without anybody saying anything. I have deer in the front but have plants they dislike eating so they just peek in the bay window and scare me. Too many trees so not enough light for vegees out back and I have clay soil anyway. I let the fence fill in with ivy.

That's beautiful! They do tell people where they can move their fences especially on a corner. The only fence that you may have closer than the allotted 15 feet from the sidewalk, is a 48 inch wrought iron or split rail to maintain visibility on a corner lot. I was really looking forward to and excited about being able to open my yard an extra 15 feet. Were I to to put a 48 inch fence now, I would lose my privacy almost completely. This is not an ask for forgiveness rather than permission, because you're not simply slapped with fine, you are made to tear your fence down and move it. It seems the only option I have is just to run a 48 inch or ��" perhaps a deer fence like you mentioned, if it's easily removable-- up against my current fence. I had even thought about just foregoing that area and doing fruit trees there, but I'm afraid that the shadows from the fruit trees would quickly overlap the beds that I would make on the other side of the fence. The house faces east and the shadows will run to the right (if you are facing the house). I already have the tall trees across the street (on the dead end side) throwing shadows on that area as the sun starts to descend. But it still gets decent sun.

You have not made clear in this thread exactly what you wish to accomplish, where, and what is allowable. You're discussing details around it. I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to overcome. Does the yellow line represent the required setback or your proposed fence location? (It looks like one end of it might go to the front door ...?) It would be good if you lay out your proposal very specifically.

Thank you, sorry for the lack of clarity. Welcome to my world :-P. Ideally, I would like a magic wand to wave and magically move my fence out and have it be okay. Barring that, I hope my little plan is clear, the yellow line (in the very first picture up above), is currently where a 6 foot fence is legally located. The vegetable garden section that we would like to do is going to be highly visible to people from all around, so it's important that it look as nice as possible. It's hard to tell from the picture but moving the fence forward from red to yellow would buy us 10-15 more feet of interior yard space (and is legal). Plus we plan to cut down the maple tree there. There is only a large picture window on and two smaller windows on that section of wall, there is no door except for the garage doors on that side of the house. I would really love to have fruit trees in my yard. I don't know if it's okay, or tacky where if it put possible locations mentioned in the picture. In the front yard work up that you drew for me, it looks like you had put a tree on the front corner of the house where the purple dot is. I didn't know if a fruiting tree would be good idea there or not. Fruit trees that would work in my climate that I would be likely to plant include peaches and pears, maybe an apple tree or something like that.

This post was edited by catsgurleygirl on Fri, Apr 18, 14 at 11:17

Here are some more pics:

I also have 60 purple passion asparagus roots I want to plant somewhere, don't know where as they can look pretty crappy with their bushy growth.

Neighborhood view looking out from area we want to vegetable garden in. Neighbors have a direct view from their second-story window down into the garden, so I would like it to look nice.

Looking up the street, you can see that our neighbors across the street from the front of our house also have a very clear view into that area as well.

What about something like this? Maybe leaving 2 foot border of flowers and such around the fence on the outside and then putting up a wrought iron 4 foot fence but not enclosing very far up the driveway side to allow room for car doors opening and moving things in and out the area. Sorry the (all) drawings are so crude. Haven't mastered ipad photoshop. :P

I'm not saying the wood fence looks bad. It looks normal. But to be real, it does not look near as dressy and refined as the the other built things on the property ... brick, siding, concrete, shingles, etc. Instead, because of it following the slope and being unpainted, it looks rustic. The closer to the street you move it, the more prominent it becomes. If I were a neighbor, I'd vote for you leaving it where it is (In spite of what the regulations say or don't say) because it fits better for the neighborhood. Bordering the area outside the wood fence with another, dressier and shorter fence, seems like it would work well to add upscaling to the scene and hide a portion of the things behind. Proportion-wise, I think I'd set the shorter fence back 4' min. off of the walk and 6' off the drive. Those things growing on the outside of the fence will require more room than 2'. OK ... sure, you could keep something growing in a 2' width, but it will be harder to maintain and look pinched
With vegetables, you won't be able to get too close to that tree inside the corner of the existing fence. It seems like this side yard might be better for growing those (dwarf) fruit trees you want. A well tended orchard is quite handsome. With a fence and flower border, it could be stunning. Or, this might be the time to start creating that Belgian fence you've always wanted! It could even be made of pears or apples. (You may have to electrify for the deer!) I don't think it would fall under the normal fence regulations so maybe you could put it 4' off of the walk and kill two birds with one stone. If you make a good one, the neighbors could/would not complain at all. (They might complain during the beginning stage. But all's well that ends well.)

You could use a fruit tree at the corner of house, if you prune it to look good.

I don't know the drawing program you use, but if you look, there is likely a line tool that will be much easier to use than a brush or pencil tool, when you want to draw straight lines.

Thanks again Yardvaark, I really like your ideas. It makes me feel excited about potential rather than despondent about what I can't do :). The Belgian fence sounds intimidating and exciting at the same time, I am definitely going to look into that. How heavenly to have apples and pears growing like that. The tree in the corner you mentioned is a crepe myrtle, I have no qualms about cutting it down if it doesn't work there. I need kale beds somewhere and I am thinking behind the fence will be the best place for them and so I imagine it will need to come down. I am passionate about growing veggies and my husband and I maintained a 2,500sq. ft. garden out at our community garden but it's way too far now that we have moved. I hope to have 600 sq. ft by the retaining wall area this year in raised beds and it just seems so tiny I want to create vegetable garden space where I can. Anyway, thank you again very much for you input.

Don't be intimidated by the Belgian fence. You've probably seen some of the training posts and wires on Google Images. The posts don't need to be set in concrete. As the fence ages, at some point they become no longer needed and can be pulled out, or cut down. It is a very exciting and useful thing to create ... sure to get noticed by all who see.

That tree I was talking about didn't look like a crape. I took another look and see that it is outside the wood fence ... a few feet in front of the picture window, left of drive.

I was in a nursery in Santa Cruz this week and they had dwarf fruit trees for sale already trained into espalier shapes. That may be considered cheating but I ain't getting any younger over here, I'd surely plop them in the ground and enjoy them. You have a beautiful house and some great ideas to work with. Whatever you do will be great.

Ah, yes Yardvaark, that tree is going to come down. I hope I don't regret it since it may block a nice amount light from coming into the picture window. It's a Maple tree of some sort, it's not very pretty or straight and it has root systems running all over the top the ground-and it's taking up ground I could be gardening in :).

Thank you Elysian. I wonder if we have something like that around here in Memphis, I am going to look into that. Maybe some of the higher end nurseries will have them.

Thanks to both of you!

Did you check with local authority about planting vegetables in the front yard?