You may have seen the picture of our beautiful new fence at Old Trail Farm. If not, you can check it out here! No matter how beautiful, all fences have one constant problem: grass and weeds growing along the fence line. Fortunately, we have a few tricks up our sleeve to prevent them from causing us too much grief in the spring!
Aargh, they’re already starting!
To get control of the situation, we first used a string trimmer to whack them down as much as possible. A string trimmer is an effective weed management tool along many fence lines, but not woven wire like ours. The wire wears down the trimmer line too quickly and weeds tend to weave themselves through the wire in a way that makes them impossible to trim completely!
Our friends at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) suggested this nifty tip:
Piling garden lime along the fence line will change the pH of the soil there so dramatically that plants are not able to survive. Lime is also really cheap!
Next we are mulching HEAVILY with wood chips to smother the existing weeds and grass. This is a great solution for us because we get free wood chips whenever they clear fallen trees on the grounds here at Old Trail School.
We have a LOT of fence line to mulch! For this project, we’re lucky to have some extra help.
Here is volunteer Joey from the Sustainable Agriculture Program at LCCC hard at work. Thanks, Joey! We also have groups of sixth- and seventh-graders coming up from Old Trail this afternoon to “chip” in. Many hands make light work!
The finished product – effective AND attractive weed control.