Hedged In or Sitting On the Fence?

Fences, it is said, make good neighbours but Dean Fosdick suggests considering a hedge if you're in need of a fence. Writing in The Washington Post, he notes that, when managed properly, hedges cost less and outlast wooden fences. But hedges require regular watering, weeding, fertilizing and, unless informal, shaping. Other than the ubiquitous chain-link fence, apparently almost indestructible, fences made of treated wood will need maintenance every few years. Even then they will succumb while living barriers continue to flourish. Nevertheless, as Robert Frost once advised: "Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up."