Picket Up, set it down

Pressed lumber fences, and privacy fences are one thing and a charming picket fence is another.  Today - - - all about Picket fences.

There are vinyl picket fences which have the allure of no maintenance -- permanent good looks, light and easy to handle and install and the traditional wooden picket fence.
The first issue I can tell you that you need to consider is:  Just how well-behaved are the children in your neighborhood?  Because unless they have halos and wings and sing praises to God all day long, your beautiful vinyl fence will get vandalized one day or the other and there you'll be with a broken picket or more.  If you want to put your house up for a quick sale and you are 'staging' it, then a vinyl fence is a quick fix.  But remember that this type of fence is just a quick fix and it's permanent beauty 'as advertised' is highly over-stated.

[RIGHT:  The Garden Club of Virginia project was presented on April 27, 2005 in Danville at the Sutherlin Mansion. The picket fence, a replica of the fence shown in a circa 1880s -1900s photograph of the house, was designed by William D. Rieley, Landscape Architect for The Garden Club of Virginia. Square pickets and posts with pyramid caps are painted with polychrome finish to match the house.]

Wooden picket fences, if damaged by storms, over-ambitious little boys (or girls), car accidents, and other acts of God, can be repaired at probably lower cost than replacing the vinyl fence.
Wooden fences also have the advantage of innumerable designs.  There are the plethora of designs form Civil War, Victorian, and glorious days past.  There is also the artist within you -- and those designs are limited only by your immagination.
POPULAR MECHANICS has a whole set of plans online.
THIS OLD HOUSE also has an article on how to install a traditional wooden picket fence.
For fences like the "Museum Fence" like the one pictured above there is no logistical problem when it comes time to clean and paint the fence.

What I'm bringing to the table here is a system for fences that abut hedges or your neighbor's property.  Although you may know the current neighbor, and be on good terms with him/her the case may not always be so.  And, if a fence is right up against a thorn bush, or any bush, for that matter, how can you maintain the bush and the fence?  The answer is by creating a yolk -- (basic design pictured right) -- .  What you do on the section of fence that must be removed to paint, maintain, or to service the shrubbery behind the fence.  Also use this method if the fence abuts your neighbor's property and you are uncomfortable going over there to maintain the structure.  Instead of the mortise connection on that section,

you use the yolk pictured above.  Then, when the time comes, you can just lift the section out, address the issues, be it trimming the shrub, painting, or what-have-you.
When you are done, you just lift the fence up and drop it back in.
This is a pretty safe system because the fence is substantially heavy (you may need to get a friend to help you lift it out or drop it in) so people can't readily run off with it. 
When painted the difference will be almost imperceptible.

Of course, if you are worried somebody will actually walk off with that section, you can buy round aluminum bars, cut them, and drill both ends through.  Then purchase some mini padlocks and lock it down.  See sketch at right.
Backyard Garden has several designs you can choose from.  But you know all you have to do is Google Images, and make your choice.