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pinksand
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Barrier to keep neighbors weeds out

We had a 3 board paddock style fence installed this winter with a wire mesh to keep our puppy in the yard. The problem is that our neighbors have a steep slope just on the other side of our fence that they don't maintain besides hiring someone to plow down the weeds about once a year. The space is overrun by vinca, poison ivy, poke weeds, various ground weeds such as catchweed bedstraw and pretty much everything else you could imagine, something that looks like a wild thorny rose but I’ve never seen it flower, and the fastest growing vining weed I’ve ever seen with small oval leaves and no flowers that I’ve seen. The wire of our fencing has provided a wonderful trellis for all their vining weeds to climb and there’s no way I’ll ever be able to keep up with it all! The fence is actually a foot into our property because of the slope so I have room to install some type of barrier on the other side. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to keep this vigorous collection of weeds on the other side of the fence?

Here’s the only photo I have of the fence on hand (really a photo of our puppy from winter so the fence isn’t even the focus) You can see their tree that has been taken over by algerian ivy among several other vines.

Image

This is a photo from last year to show the mess of vinca shortly after the tall weeds were plowed down. Our fence basically lines where you can see the vinca ends. The fence goes right in front of the dogwood pictured. I'd like to redo the garden on my side, but don't want to do anything until I can get the weeds to a more manageable level.

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pinksand
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Thank you, I love him to pieces :)

Is there any kind of tall edging I could use to line that side of the fence? I'm thinking something I can bury at least 1ft down and have stick up maybe 8" to keep the vines from reaching for the metal mesh. I couldn't find any landscape edging that would accommodate that depth. What about aluminum siding sheets or some type of aluminum sheeting that isn't necessarily made for that purpose? Then I could get a weed whacker and reach over the fence with it to keep the weeds along the other side of the fence mowed down and also pour horticulture strength vinegar along the barrier for good measure.

imafan26
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I used aluminum flashing and phylon panels along my fence to keep the weeds at bay. It does not go deep but it does slow them down. You still will need to do some kind of herbicide and the vines will still climb the fencing.

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hendi_alex
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My method is to make sure that I can mow on either side of the fence. Vining plants in particular can't handle being mowed often. See if the neighbor will allow you to make one or two passes with your mower on his side of the fence. Barriers and chemicals will just equal an exercise in frustration.

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pinksand
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Due to the slope, a few large exposed rocks, and trees right along the other side of the fence I don't think that using our lawn mower will be an option. Do you think I could hold a weed whacker over the fence to keep the weeds mowed down a bit? I don't currently have one. I do think keeping them mowed would be a practical option. I may also install alluminum flashing as well to aid in slowing them down.

Our neighbors are super nice, just don't have the time, interest, or money to do much with the space.

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hendi_alex
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Line trimmer should work. If neighbors are agreeable perhaps consider three foot landscape fabric with heavy mulch on top.

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watermelonpunch
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Weed whacker for the win.
I mean if your neighbors wind up to be cool with that, I'd say that's going to be the path of least resistance... and least work.

However, I would mention that I've had it from good authoritative authority (on invasive plant management) that japanese honeysuckle sometimes rebounds aggressively after being whacked down... so it really takes a concerted effort and a once a year whack down might actually be making the honeysuckle more aggressive.
The better choices are cut to the ground and then treated with something nasty... or cut it on a regular schedule over & over again during the season. And this is in PA... further south may require even more frequent mow downs maybe. Just sayin.

Ironically the japanese honeysuckle that's a mess at the edge of our property (which is adjacent to an undeveloped field that was a reclaimed industrial site of the past)... it's strangled off the knotweed next to it. ha ha (That too takes repeated cut downs to eradicate.)

Still... the point being that a barrier won't stop the honeysuckle. I have seedlings spring up in a flowerbed 100ft away from that mess every spring. I'm assuming something's being carried on the wind or via bird poop or something, because it's not spreading overland as it were.

As for pokeweed... I've successfully gotten rid of these by pulling up the baby taproots, and the ones that are too big to uproot, I've stuck a pick down into the taproots and that was the end of those.
I have some that I could not do that with.
Someone here on this forum last year told me to just chop it before it makes berries. I did that for the ones I couldn't kill at the root, and this year, I have not seen any new poke weeds crop up in my flowerbeds as they did viciously the past 2 springs.
There is a HUGE one at the edge of yard, in the weedy grassy drainage ditch that separates the yard from the field so to speak. It grows right next to a concrete raised drain (that goes into the city sewer)... and there's no way I'm getting to the bottom of it.
There are also 3 that grow on the other side of the yard just over the property line in someone's back yard. It's a neighbor I've never met nor even seen. I talked to their landscaping service, and the young man told me they don't "pick weeds", they just mow the grass. They weed whack around the trim, but don't bother with this guy's abandoned berry bush garden that's behind a lattice fence, and they don't chop the pokeweeds under the birch trees. So since I have never seen this neighbor, and the only people who work on his yard are these young hired landscapers... I took the liberty of reaching over the property line and chopping the tops off the poke weed before the berries were made.

It was SOOO nice this spring not to have to uproot those pokeweeds out of my flowerbeds. :D

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pinksand
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I was researching the topic and did read that honeysuckle does enjoy a good trimming. Although I usually avoid using chemicals and pretty much hand pull everything I can, I went ahead and sprayed the honeysuckle along with the poison ivy. I probably didn't even make a dent :( I'll plan on starting by frequently whacking it down with a weed whacker (still need to purchase one) and see how that goes.

Regarding the poke weed. Last year I left it in areas I didn't care about (under a large evergreen tree for instance) because I know it's a native plant and feeds the birds. Well I won't be doing that again... they're popping up everywhere this year. I'll definitely be sure to pull what I can and plow down what I can't before they get berries from now on. I'll never be able to keep up with the poke weeds from my neighbors though. They have a pretty large slope full of them. I just hope that they drop their seeds down the hill (thank you gravity) and that the birds poop out the seeds elsewhere ;)
Last edited by pinksand on Tue May 27, 2014 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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hendi_alex
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While it may be true that a trimming stimulates honeysuckle growth, IMO, repeated trimming does not. We have masses of honeysuckle outside the yard and also have a good bit that gets into various planting areas and around trees in the yard. But where the yard is regularly mowed, there is no honey suckle. This is true of all of the many vines that grow in and around our yard: honeysuckle, wisteria, red trumpet, Virginia creeper, poison oak. None grow very aggressively into the mowed areas, as they just can't handle the repeated cuttings.



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