MiamiCuse wrote:
Both my neighbor and mine had erected a fence along our property.

They had a vinyl fence, and since code specified a fence cannot be
directly built on the property line but must be set 6" back minimum,
their fence was about 8" back. I hated the look of a vinyl fence so
I built a wood fence, also about 8" from the property line.

This leaves a sliver of space about 16" wide between our two fences.


A strange use of resources. It must be a difficult neighbourhood where you
cannot negotiate a fence that you can both tolerate and share the cost.

Mysteriously things started to grow inside this sliver, shrubs, and
a few papaya trees shot up and now is about 9' tall with the trunk
diameter 3" in size. Some of the shrubs are starting to shoot up to
already taller than the 6' fence, some things are bulging against my
wood fence, nothing serious yet but if I ignore them it will be
serious in a few years.
Obviously we don't have access from the side, but only from the top. The
area is about 110' long.

What sort of wooden fence is it? Can't you take off a couple of planks to
get in or get somebody slender to climb in from the top?


Is there something I can sprinkle down this space and kill off what's
in between? I cannot use RoundUp because my understanding is RoundUp
you need to spray to the root area and I only have access from the
top side.
Thanks,

MC

Roundup (glyphosate) is absorbed by the leaves not the roots, there is no
point in spraying on the soil or the root zone. It works best when the
plants are growing strongly, ie late spring. But any new seeds that blow
into the space will grow and you will have to spray again and again. There
are chemical treatments that are supposed to inhibit seed germination but I
don't know how effective they are or how long they persist. You would also
need to keep back any nearby plants that creep on the ground or that have
running root systems.

If you want a long term solution I would weed it and then cover the
offending area with something solid and opaque to prevent seeds from
starting and discourage runners - like black plastic under crushed rock.
This may be more effort but you only have to do it once. Are there any
children available to press into working in the confined space without being
arrested for breach of child labour laws?

David