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Wednesday - August 15, 2012

From: Birmingham, AL
Region: Southeast
Topic: Privacy Screening
Title: Plants for a property line in Birmingham, AL
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I am looking for a plant to help establish a property line. Our neighbor's landscaping/mowing company has a large turnover, and the new employees always get confused about where the property line is because our property line is so close to our neighbor's house. We are constantly running them off our property doing things like pruning our crepe myrtles and weedeating our bank on which we are struggling to get groundcover plants to grow. And usually they don't speak English so it's difficult for them to understand what we're trying to tell them. If we planted something along the property line from the street to the back of the yard, hopefully they will get the message, but we don't want it to be anything large like a hedge. Do you have any suggestions? We are in Birmingham, AL.

ANSWER:

We assume that you have already explored the possibility that your neighbor could contact their landscaper and insist that the property line be observed? The problem with having landscapers, of course, is that the property owners may be gone during the day and there is no one there to remind the crew. We tried to think of some plants that would discourage the workers from passing over, and thought particularly of thorny or spiky plants. However, even they would have to start small and could easily be weedeaten or mowed or just tramped on. Plus, as the plants grew in width, they would probably extend over the property line and become "fair game" for the Fierce Landscapers.

So, just off the top of our head, how about a non-plant solution? Our first (and probably least expensive) idea would be to drive stakes, available at any hardware store, into the boundary line, and groove the top of each stake. This groove will hold heavy surveyor's rope in place as you stretch it from stake to stake. This surveyor's rope is often a bright color, yellow or red. Stakes not too far apart with the rope hanging loosely between them should make it quite clear, "This far and no farther."

Another thought which might be a little more labor intensive, but certainly no more expensive would be to dig a trench, say 6" wide, with the far edge on the property line. You could then fill it with a brightly covered gravel, river rocks, anything that would facilitate drainage, but not prevent mowing. Perhaps, especially until the gardeners get the idea, you might still want to add to the trench the stakes and rope. Another possibility for this fix is low, lightweight trellis-type fencing, which might be wood, plastic or vines. They are often available in hardware and garden shops to mark boundaries of flower beds. They won't last forever, but they are attractive and make the point very clear.

We believe all of those solutions will be less expensive and labor-intensive than buying, planting and watering plants.

We next searched the Internet on "marking property boundaries" and found this site.

From Homesteading Today Creative Ways to Mark Property Lines