Advice on how to keep an overgrown fence clear of growth.

[billt]

I once heard that pounding a copper rod into a stump, or the trunk of a live tree will kill it by electrical conductivity over time. A bit like the 2 Pennies and a lemon battery trick.

[tombogan03884]

I once heard that pounding a copper rod into a stump, or the trunk of a live tree will kill it by electrical conductivity over time. A bit like the 2 Pennies and a lemon battery trick.

It's because the chemicals in the Copper are poisonous to plant life, and it does work, but very slow .

[Solus]

It's because the chemicals in the Copper are poisonous to plant life, and it does work, but very slow .

That might be good.   

Thinking of a slow death for some of this bothersome stuff might  help you fall asleep with a smile on your face.

[billt]

If you have a hacksaw and a pedestal or small bench grinder, you could buy a length of 1/4" or 3/8" Copper rod and make a bunch of Copper nails. Just cut the rod off to the length you require, then grind a point on the end, and hammer away. Drive in several per tree.

[PegLeg45]

Salt.

[Sponsor]

[mkm]

It depends on what's there. A combination of imazapyr and glyphosate should cover most of it. If you have blackberries, add escort to the mix.

I am not familiar with the ortho triox, but it does contain the imazapyr.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[lhprop1]

Clear plasitc sheeiting and a suny day kills stuff dead.

I was going to post this, but TAB beat me to it.  It's called soil solarization and it's a little more than just putting plastic on the ground, but it works (google 'soil solarization' to see how).  It superheats the soil and it even kills the seeds that can remain dormant in the soil for years.  You need to leave it on for about 6 weeks, though.

No chemicals and your only expense is a little time and a sheet of plastic.

[Solus]

TAB and lprop1,   I have an area that was overgrown and cleared that I plan to use as a garden plot and will use the plastic to "sterilize" it without the use of chemicals to keep it clean for next year's garden.

Thanks.

[billt]

Some landscapers out here will lay down plastic before covering it with gravel. It prevents weeds quite well. But you have to be really careful with how your land is pitched, and water runoff. Out here we get no rain for weeks. Then we can get a half inch in 20 minutes when a super storm rolls through during Monsoon Season. (Now, until around the second week in September). If the ground can't absorb it, (which it has enough of a hard time doing), the plastic can really cause problems if you don't have enough pitch to carry the rain water away.

[lhprop1]

Some landscapers out here will lay down plastic before covering it with gravel. It prevents weeds quite well. But you have to be really careful with how your land is pitched, and water runoff. Out here we get no rain for weeks. Then we can get a half inch in 20 minutes when a super storm rolls through during Monsoon Season. (Now, until around the second week in September). If the ground can't absorb it, (which it has enough of a hard time doing), the plastic can really cause problems if you don't have enough pitch to carry the rain water away.

What you're talking about is called weed-block and it's different from what we're talking about.  Weed-block is a semi-permeable material that people use underneath layers of mulch or rock to prevent future weed growth.  It works fairly well.

What TAB and I were talking about is a method of killing every plant and seed that may lie dormant in a patch of soil prior to planting.  Basically, you raze everything and dig a small trench around the area.  Wet the area and then cover it with thick, clear plastic for the 6 hottest weeks of the year and then fill the trenches in with dirt to weight down the plastic.  The heat created by this will kill everything up to about 18" beneath the surface, including weed seeds that can lay dormant for up to 5 years under the right conditions. 

After that process is finished, it's advisable to put down a layer of weed-block before you landscape.  It will keep you mostly weed free for quite a while, though once the layers of mulch start to decompose, they will form a layer of soil above the weed block in which newly spread weed seeds can germinate.