Anyone have any ideas on keeping fence rows clean?

I have a LOT of black vinyl coated chain link fence that forms my back yard and keeps my dogs in place..... It takes hours and hours and hours of weedeating to attempt to keep it clean and needless to say, most of it never gets accomplished. I am wanting to line the inside of the fence with flower beds, but concerned that will only add to the difficulty of keeping the fencerow itself clean. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can not afford to build a raised bed all the way around, but might could do it in stages, although a raised bed is not really needed since my soil is very sandy and drains well anyway.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to how to control the battle with the fence, and maybe have some nice beds as well........... thanks for any and all input !

Genna

maybe if you pick a nice ground cover it will smother out the weeds. Just research different types for your area and get one that you can live with as some will take over the yard.

Is the bottom of the fence below ground level? If not, spray both sides of the fence line with roundup and position a 1 foot wide strip of weed block under the fence, centered on the fence. Put your planting bed in from there and cover the weed block with a heavy layer of mulch. Depending on what is on the outside of the fence, use mulch or gravel or rock to line the outsideof the fence line. This should keep weeds at bay from both sides.

If it is below ground, you can apply weed block to both sides and mulch over.

Wow - wonder where I might could purchase that stuff wholesale? I would probably need 600 + ft...... actually maybe closer to a 1000. I can't remember how much running length we have of fence but it is a LOT!

The fence is not below ground. I had wondered about trying to mulch under it but wasn't sure how I would 'contain' the outside..... But, that gives me some food for thought. I could start at one side and work my way around and eventually have it under control! Thanks so much for the suggestions!!

Weed block comes in 50 and 100 foot lengths and in 3 and 4 feet widths. By using a 1 foot width and a 100 foot length, at most you would be looking at 3 rolls to cover 900 to 1200 linear feet depending on which one you use.

What would you suggest to use to cut the weed block??

I use a regular pair of scissors/kitchen shears. It is not thick, no more so than a single layer of cloth. I used 50 foot rolls and we unrolled one, a 4 foot width, did an accordian stylr fold into quarters (4 thicknesses) and just cut down the fold line. Ended up with 4 50 ft long 1 ft wide strips.

Sounds simple enough. Did you purchase at Home Depot or Lowes or a specialty house of some type?? We have very limited options around here - I might have to do a mail order but it would still be worth it not to have to fight the constant weed eating!

Thanks again!
Genna

I got mine at the dollar general store for about 5bux or less a roll...but you can usually find weed block, landscape cloth at Home Depot, Lowe's TrueValue hdware or most garden centers

Thanks!