Learn Hardcore Russian: Вдоль пруда стоит низкий деревянный забор. - Along the pond there is a low wooden fence.

Use вдоль when you imagine a line: a fence, a row of trees, a path, etc.
Use у / около / возле when you simply mean “near / by” without the idea of “alongside”.

Can I change the word order to Низкий деревянный забор стоит вдоль пруда? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, that word order is correct:

Вдоль пруда стоит низкий деревянный забор.
Низкий деревянный забор стоит вдоль пруда.

Both mean the same thing. The difference is in emphasis:

Вдоль пруда... at the beginning makes you focus first on the location (“Along the pond, there is…”).
Низкий деревянный забор... at the beginning makes you focus first on the object (“A low wooden fence stands…”).

In everyday speech, both are natural; the given original is slightly more “scene-setting” (first you picture the pond, then the fence).

Why do we use стоит (“stands”)? In English we’d just say “There is a fence…” or “A fence runs along the pond.”

Russian often uses “position” verbs instead of a neutral “there is”:

стоит – stands (vertical position)
лежит – lies (horizontal position)
висит – hangs

These verbs serve two roles:

Describe position (standing, lying, hanging).
Act as a kind of existential “there is” in that position.

So:

Вдоль пруда стоит забор. – Literally: “Along the pond stands a fence.”
Functionally: “There is a fence along the pond.”

This sounds more natural than есть забор here. You could also omit a verb entirely in some “there is” sentences, but with a specific position like this стоит is very idiomatic.

Could we say Вдоль пруда низкий деревянный забор without стоит?

That version is possible but sounds more like a headline, a note, or poetic/literary style, not neutral spoken Russian.

In normal descriptive speech or prose, you’d generally include a verb:

Вдоль пруда стоит низкий деревянный забор.

Without стоит, it feels elliptical or stylistic, like a caption:
“Along the pond – a low wooden fence.”

Why is забор in the nominative case? Could it ever be accusative here?

In this sentence, забор is the subject of the verb стоит, so it’s in nominative singular:

забор (Nom.) стоит – the fence stands

The structure is:

Вдоль пруда – adverbial phrase of place (not the subject)
стоит – verb
низкий деревянный забор – subject (in nominative)

You would use accusative for забор if it were a direct object, for example:

Он покрасил забор. – He painted the fence. (забор is accusative here)

But in “…стоит забор”, the fence is doing the “standing”, so it must be nominative.

How do the adjectives низкий and деревянный agree with забор grammatically?

Забор is masculine, inanimate, singular, nominative. So the adjectives must match that:

низкий – masculine, singular, nominative
деревянный – masculine, singular, nominative
забор – masculine, singular, nominative

If we change gender or number, everything changes:

высокая деревянная стена – a high wooden wall (fem. sg. nom.)
низкие деревянные заборы – low wooden fences (plural nom.)

The rule:
Adjectives in Russian agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

What’s the difference between низкий and маленький? Could I say маленький деревянный забор?

You can say маленький деревянный забор, but it means something slightly different:

низкий = low (emphasizes height)
маленький = small (emphasizes overall size, not just height)

So:

низкий забор – a fence that isn’t tall; maybe long, but short in height.
маленький забор – a fence that is generally small; not very big overall (could be short in length, height, or both).

In the context “along the pond”, we typically imagine a long fence but not very tall, so низкий is more natural.

How do you pronounce the whole sentence? Where is the stress in each word?

Stresses (capitalized syllables) and rough IPA:

Вдоль – VDOL’ [vdolʲ] (one syllable, no internal stress mark needed)
пруда – пруДА [prʊˈda] (stress on -да)
стоит – стаИТ [stɐˈit] (two syllables, stress on -ит)
низкий – НИзкий [ˈnʲizkʲɪj] (stress on НИ-)
деревянный – дереВЯНный [dʲɪrʲɪˈvʲannɨj] (stress on -вян-)
забор – заБОР [zɐˈbor] (stress on -бор)

Full sentence (stressed syllables in caps):
Вдоль пруДА стоИТ НИзкий дереВЯНный заБОР.

Could we use another verb like тянется or идёт instead of стоит? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, and it would slightly change the imagery:

Вдоль пруда тянется низкий деревянный забор.
Literally: “A low wooden fence stretches along the pond.”
– emphasizes the length / continuity of the fence.
Вдоль пруда идёт низкий деревянный забор.
Literally: “A low wooden fence goes along the pond.”
– more figurative; common in descriptions (“a path goes along the river”, “a road goes through the forest”).
Вдоль пруда стоит низкий деревянный забор.
– neutral description that a fence is standing along the pond.

All are grammatical; стоит is the most neutral, тянется is the most “visual” and descriptive.

How would the sentence change if there were several fences or if we talked about the past?

Plural (several fences):

Вдоль пруда стоят низкие деревянные заборы.
- стоят – plural of стоит
- низкие деревянные заборы – plural adjectives + noun

Past tense (there was a fence):

Вдоль пруда стоял низкий деревянный забор. – masculine sg. past
(Earlier, there was a low wooden fence along the pond.)

Future tense (there will be a fence):

Вдоль пруда будет стоять низкий деревянный забор.
(There will be a low wooden fence along the pond.)

The prepositional phrase вдоль пруда and the cases stay the same; only the verb form and any time expressions change.