Fence Lines and Brush
 

For crying out loud people take care of your fence lines. Don't let them get so overgrown with blackberries that you have to darn near rent a bulldozer to get to the fence. Spraying your fence line at least once a year with a crossbow/roundup mix works best. I know some of you prefer not to use herbicides so mowing on either side of your fence will pretty much keep your fence row from turning into a brush row.

This just doesn't go for fence lines only but also the rest of your property. I've seen so many city people here in Oregon that buy land and just let it be "natural" as they call it. Within a couple of years that lush green field around your house is completely covered with blackberries, scotch broom, tansy and many other noxious and invasive weeds. What really bothers me is that a yearly brush hogging would completely prevent this. There's plenty of guys on craigslist around here that will come out and mow large fields with a bush hog for a pretty reasonable price. If you have decent grass some custom haying guys will even come out and mow your place for free in exchange for getting to keep the hay. A few of my neighbors have even received letters from the county telling them they will be fined if they don't remove certain invasive weeds from their property(I know this because they've begged me to come over with my bushhog.)

Let this be a reminder for those who buy land in the country. Don't let your 40 acres of lush grass turn into a 40 acre brushy/toxic weedy mess. Not only does it look like crap it prevents you from using the land for anything productive without having to clear the brush out of it first.

-rant over

How about you do what you want with your land and I will do what I want with mine?

I have 8 acres or so that I have let go back to natural prairie, I have BobWhite Quail nesting out there for the first time in dozens of years, and plenty of other native birds and wild life. And god forbid I also let the Milkweed grow so that the Monarch butterflies have started coming back.

Don't get me wrong I'm a big believer in letting people do what they want with there property. This is America after all. Mainly what bothers me is tansy which is poisonous to livestock. It's a big problem in hay fields and pastures here. When I see a property with a huge field filled with tansy and other bad weeds like thistle it disgusts me. I grow hay and have to fight these nasty weeds on a yearly basis.

Maybe letting the land go "back to nature" works where you live, I dunno. In most places here in western Oregon the blackberries and Scotch broom take over. If you're lucky your pastures will stay pastures (all non-native grasses, of course) without too much management, but fencelines WILL be taken over by blackberries. I hate the stuff, don't use herbicides, but take great relish in mowing/weed whacking them.

I've seen some really nasty former pastures completely covered in Scotch broom, Himalayan blackberry, and various other non-native noxious weeds.

On the other hand, some rural folks devote all their land to crop production, from "fenceline to fenceline," leaving nothing for wildlife. There should be a balance.

Yeah, thistle is another one that will take over if you let it. So many fun weeds here in Oregon.

A couple years ago some folks up the road disked their weedy, overgrazed pasture. I thought they were going to seed it, but guess they forgot or ran out of money or something. Turned into a giant mess of dock, thistle, and various sundry other worthless weeds. Had a couple poor horses grazing in it, of course.

Unintended consequences.
When one neighbor lets his land "go back to nature", it seem so pure. But in reality, it could just be requiring the surrounding farmers to use more herbicides to get rid of the weeds from the person fostering the noxious weeds.
I see it in the parts of Michigan where fruit is grown. A few acres of untended fruit trees is a safe harbor for damaging insects. So, those that depend on unblemished fruit for their livelihood, must use more chemicals to beat back the insects that multiply on the untended acreages.
To put it another way, if everyone in a neighborhood had weed-free lawns and I wanted to turn my lawn into thistle patch, everyone else would have to spray to kill the weeds in their lawns from my thistle seeds.
When I bought my farm, nearly 40 years ago, all the fence wire was on the ground covered in matted grass and brush. I pulled rotted cedar posts, pulled wire, cut brush, drilled post holes, set posts and strung wire, miles and miles of wire. But none of my neighbors farm and I cannot cut brush on the property of others. So, the brush has returned.

Scotch broom is so nasty and highly flammable. From Roseburg myself and grew up around that junk. I agree with your rant.

One word...goats :p

I get that folks - myself included - don't like to be told what they have to do.

But is sure is good to be a good neighbor, and treat others the way you would want to be treated.

Allowing noxious weeds to multiply on your property, and or non native species that create problems for others, sure doesn't sound like you are being a good person. I don't suppose anyone is trying to support suce behavior are they?

We all gotta get along, and neighbors are individuals, gonna be differences.

It does hurt to see a nice plot of land taken over and just turn into a mess, I can understand the rant here.

Paul

I know but I use Herbicide on my Fence Rows and unwanted plants in the field.

But when I have Timber ground if I'm wanting to Raise Goats or just encourage Deer to come in I would burn it at least every three years to have New Growth, including New Sprouts.

This is one thing I couldn't get through to the Guy that bought my old place, he complained he didn't have Deer. He had to either Burn or Cut to have more food for the Deer.

big rockpile

Here In Indiana we have a law on the books (I think from 1920's-30's) that property lines will be clean and maintained 4' on each side of the fence. Each owner is to meet in the center of that stretch of property line and is responsible for the entire upkeep on both sides of the fence of the property line to his right.That being said,it is not enforced for the most part. In contrast to this the stated DNR advertises that leaving 4' on your side of the fence line for wildlife habitat,it takes ??? miles of fence line to equal the loss of 1 acre of crop land.
There's a lot of fussing around here also about the neighbors. Seems everyone thinks what they are doing on their land is what everyone else should be doing.We put a lot of money into wildlife habitat and don't want a place that looks like a lawn. The only wildlife of that type land id grasshoppers,but of course there are those who cut 18-20 acres and keep it like a lawn.On the other hand we have a balance of CRP ground remaining fallow,some in warm season grasses,some in alfalfa ,some in woods,and some in wetlands.As you can see,we have managed to have something that any one of our neighbors could complain about.But they don't.We have a prescribed burn each spring. We spray invasive species every year and we communicate with our neighbors!
I've got a lot of neighbors that do not allow hunting. That really gets under some peoples skin,and I understand that but I don't agree with it. If my neighbors don't allow hunting that's fine. It just establishes a "safe zone" for the deer meaning they will be staying around. No big deal!
If trees get washed down the creek and damnes it up , we get together and clear it out. No big deal! Nobody has to have a little hissy!
The country can be a great place to live,but not it you always have your nose hanging over the fence line to keep your neighbor living like you think they should.If that's how you want to live that's up to you but I would just stay in town if that was the attitude of country people.Life is hard enough without trying to run your neighbors life also.I just don't have time for that. I'm too busy trying to keep my own life in order.


Wade

I prefer a "natural" field to the 10 acre manicured lawns everybody loves around here.

...............You'll think differentially , when one day you come home from work to find your home and all other out buildings turned into nothing but smoking embers after a fast moving brush fire completely consumes your property ! , fordy

Everywhere I've lived there are laws against noxious weeds. You take care of them, or the county will and the cost will be on the tax bill. You could see if your county has a weed commissioner or someone in that enforces weed control.

Maybe in some parts of the country you can get away with letting parts of your property go "natural". I've done clearing for fence lines in the past and no joke these people had blackberry bushes that were a good 20 to 30 feet tall. We had a heck of a time trying to clear that so we could build a fence. It just irks me that people let the good fertile land we have here in the valley go to waste by letting it populate with invasive weeds until its so thick you can't walk through it.Then of course there's the horsey people who let there poor horses graze in a pasture filled with blackberries, tansy and thistle. The little grass that is there is eaten down to nothing. For crying out loud people take care of your land. It may be different in other parts of the country but we've got a heck of a problem here in Oregon. The county has even begun putting up signs that say "Control Noxious Weeds, It's Your Responsibility" within the last few years.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natur...#axzz35qCEnJKP

My favorite story--My Ninety Acres.....

geo

"Natural" around here would include a good raging prairie fire every once in a while to clean things up.

Using land as native wild habitat does not mean it's neglected.

After my brothers and I grew up and moved off the farm in Ohio my Mother sold her beef herd and decided to convert 30 acres over to native plant species. She used resources from OSU on how to accomplish this, along with their list of recommended plant types. Although it looks wild and unkept I can tell you it is a tremendous effort to keep the invasive species out of it. She enjoys it very much. In fact she has since converted another 15 acre field over.

I agree that people should keep the invasive species of plants under control but "wild" or "native" does not equal bad or intrusive.

Also get those LONG Grasses CUT along highways, especially intersections ~!!!!!!!
I have a heck of a problem pulling out on a busy highway with tall weeds and grasses growing.
I have to pull pretty much into the highway to SEE PAST them.
If the county does NOT come in the next few days I WILL go and cut them myself with my mower!!!!!!!!
Going back to nature is one thing, and leaving things grow up so high to make it dangerous for others is another, and leaving obnoxious and dangerous weeds to grow is also another.

I'm in the Ozarks. I do spray the fence lines at least once a year, sometimes twice.

That said, most of my property is natural forest. Not changing that.

What folks don't realize is that letting it go back to nature takes decades at least, if not a century. The short stuff comes in first, then the forest gradually takes over again. Probably not in our life times.

Mother Nature didn't intend the way we live now. :(

If you ever have watched the show called Life Without People, it will show how nature WOULD take over.
But WE are on this planet~! We will let some of nature take over to a certain extent, but when it becomes a danger to mankind then man will take over and stop nature. There is nothing wrong with that.
I keep my lawn nice, and cut it as I don't want not only weeds to take a holt, but I sure don't want creepy crawlers just outside the door nor mice coming in like they own the place either. Keeps all sorts of things down, including ticks.

Considering my work is my farm, and where the house and native pasture are is surrounded on three sides by miles of cash crop land, and the other side by a country road and more miles crop land, that is an unlikely thing to happen. Also there is NO brush, just native grasses and some wild flowers. I work very hard in the summer to cut out and kill anything invasive, like thistle and cut out any trees that start along the fence line or in the pasture.

We just purchased our 23 acres and three sides of it are woodland. The fence line goes between our woods and a neighbors field, but there was no way to walk along our side of the fence. I spent an entire weekend with a pruning saw and brush axe clearing 4-5 feet of access to the fence line. I made some video/pictures of it to publish on our blog, but since then we've been mired in moving and haven't had the chance to find, much less get my computer out to do that.

I spend a portion of each weekend we go out there to keep the fence line cleared, without chemicals.

WhirldWorks Farm

Aside from the noxious weeds if I want to let my property get over grown with "brush' or native species weeds that's exactly what I will do. That's not saying that it's okay to let noxious weeds gain a foothold and become a problem for me AND my neighbors.

I'm stuck with a mess of rose vines on my fence line from previous owners not giving a darn.
Also, NO weed killers work on this stuff. I've tried every single brand at recommended and very high concentrations and nothing.

I'm stuck with a mess of rose vines on my fence line from previous owners not giving a darn.
Also, NO weed killers work on this stuff. I've tried every single brand at recommended and very high concentrations and nothing.

Reply
 

I have an aerial picture from '53 showing about half of the land I now farm as well as several neighbours. Roughly half of the land that was farmed then isn't now. Some of that is a good thing, steep hillsides and soggy swamps that were worked with horses but weren't safe or possible to farm with tractors that were seeded back to productive forest (most of which I own), but lots of other good farmland that hasn't grown much besides weeds and scrub trees for 30-40 years. The owners' right to do it but it doesn't make it any less sad to see. It's pretty common to be able to gain 10-15% of your land back just by brushing the fence lines, even more if you take them out. I've seen farms we bought with wild grape vines thick enough to stall a 25 ton excavator

The recommended dosage of 2-4-D will get them but it does take repeat spraying. I use 300-400 gallon a year primarily on multifloura rose and make a little headway each year.Between them and autumn olive I'm looking at total control in about another ten years,provided nothing happens where I have to skip a year.


Wade

Yes that is good stuff, I use it myself around fence lines, etc.

Our yard is surrounded by timber. The original owners kept the timber pretty nice and grazed cows there. The guy that bought the timber when we bought the house/yard first cut the 12-15 hugest trees down and let them lay. He didn't keep the trails mowed or cleared, over hunted it and didn't keep the raspberries under control. Needless to say, he sold it to us a couple of years ago because there were no more deer in his timber. We opened the trails back up, mowed down all the open areas and we do not hunt. The deer are back along with a lot of other wildlife. We can enjoy walking or riding around the timber. We left some of the fallen brush for the wildlife. Some of the trails, we seeded with waterway mix. I would love to plant some native flowers and grasses in some of the more open spaces. We can get them cheaply from our county department of conservation. I just haven't gotten to that yet. The yard, we kept mowed weekly or more often. I don't want critters up close to the house. We also keep the branches trimmed around the trails and around the edge of the yard. It is a lot of work to keep the timber up.

Different strokes for different folks. There is no need for some to keep their fence lines clean if they don't need fences. Blackberries are a wecome site im much of the US where the Himilayins don't grow wild. Yep, you may have to deal with some problems from the seed coming over from your neighbor. The thistles we have here are the national flower in South Africa and much appreciated. Texans like Johnson grass, but here it is a problem. I love the smell of Japaneses honeysuckle, even though one has to fight it in fence rows here. I imagine that there is someplace where multiflor-rose is a real treat although it is a scourge here. One has to live with their neighbor whether his lawn looks like a golf course or a weed bed.

If you really want things to be controlled move into a community with a housing association... they will stop all of that tansy growing (and your hay growing as well).

I don't want things to be completely controlled and look like a golf course. Why:confused: do you think it is okay for you to let invasive tansy grow on your property that will spread to other peoples pastures and has the potential to kill their livestock. Yes tansy ragwort here in Oregon WILL KILL LIVESTOCK. That's why it's so important for me to keep it out of my hay fields because it can harm the animals that eat my hay. Because of people with your witless mentality harmful weeds like tansy will never be eradicated and will continue to plague farmers and harm livestock.

People who don't have a rural background and/or didn't take the time to learn anything before they went country mistakenly believe that everything "natural" is automatically good. When in fact the natural environment had eons to balance itself out, the prairies and all those other balanced ecosystems didn't happen in a few years. So if you are trying to duplicate the process and want to have "natural" land, I hope you are a vampire and will live a few hundred years.

If you are against chemicals, get a propane tank and a flame thrower to clean up the fenceline, when conditions make it safe to do so.

It is no more important for you to keep it out of your hayfields than it is for us to keep posioness weeds out of ours. Many of us go to a lot of effort to do such things just as you. But if my neighbor doesn't try to eradicate his, I have to deal with it.

In Oregon you can be fined by the county for allowing invasive weeds to grow on your property. I know people that have gotten letters in the mail threatening this. So we don't have to just "deal with it." We should NOT have to deal with it.

He didn't mention it was ok to have tansy