When I was a child, the door to Wonderland was a chain-link gate with a scrolled metalwork top. The morning glories that twined along the top of the garden fence stopped short at the garden gate, carefully pruned to prevent them interfering with its opening and closing. Beyond the padlocked garden gate lay Nana's garden - on one side was the dirt of the yard and the gravel driveway. On the other, the lush green and sweet, rusty smell of growing tomatoes and flowers and beans.
At their most essential, garden gates are no more than doorways - security to guard an opening. Made of wood or metal or some combination of the two, they can serve as a welcome, an invitation to the magic and serenity that lies within. More than anything, garden gates reflect the style of the gardener, whether it be a rustic affair of twigs and vine work, or a formal entry way of cast iron curls and molded leaves.
Garden gates tell you a great deal, not only about the garden, but about the gardener who designed it, who chose it to safeguard and offer entry into his inner sanctum. The graceful sweep and curl of a wrought iron rose might juxtapose with the lush green of growing things, lending a formality to an otherwise casual garden. A rustic gate of rough wood planks, sanded and left unstained, speaks volumes for the natural gardener. Behind it, one might expect the unordered rows of tumbled grape arbors, a weathered wooden bench set among the vines and the twining roses.
Most often, gardeners choose garden gates that complement the fence they've chosen, but now and then one sees a whimsical touch - an open rose trellis arch, perhaps, set between two sections of wrought iron spikes, or nestled into the opening of a palisades fence. These are the garden gates that make one stop and wonder, imagining the mind who conceived of the combination.
Whether your own tastes run to the stately ornament of wrought iron, the simplicity of a feather edge gate or the rustic charm of a white picket fence with matching garden gates, there are a few things that you should consider when you're looking for garden gates for your garden. Be sure that the workmanship is sturdy, and the materials suited to the weather conditions in your area. The hinges should be well fitted - most experts recommend three hinges for smoothest operation - and any lock that you add to it secure and strong.