How to fill gap between bottom of fence and retaining wall?

[amclaughlin09]

   

Good morning,

I'm looking for ideas to fill a gap between bottom of colorbond fence & top of limestone retaining wall. The problem is the next door neighbours grass is growing under the fence & once it's started, it is a massive job trying to cut it all back off and remove it. The gap is about 15-30mm up and down all the fence line. I've previously jammed some of that sticky foam stuff under to try and stop it, but it's pretty relentless and just comes back through. So frustrating. 

Thanks 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @amclaughlin09,

Any chance you could post some images, so our members have a better idea of the situation?

My first thought is that you can run garden edging along the fence, which will do a reasonable job of halting the grass's progress. You might like to add some weedmatting along the ground and up the fence to block sunlight before installing the edging. 

You'll likely find that the grass will try and push up behind the edging using the channels in the profiled Colorbond. If it continues to be that aggressive, I'd be looking at poisoning it. Poisoning the runners coming under the fence could kill off some of the lawn on the neighbour's side. It's best to check in with them to see if they'd like to control the grass on their side first with edging before you go ahead and poison the grass on your side.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[amclaughlin09]

Hi, sorry about that, I was being lazy. Have added a couple of photos. Not sure how the edging would attach to the fence... was trying to avoid poisoning but may have to. Thank you 

[EricL]

Hello @amclaughlin09

Thank you for posting those updated photos of your fence line. It's great that you've received excellent advice from @MitchellMc. If you wish to use a natural form of weed or grass control, I suggest using a handheld steamer or a kettle. Weeds or grass when exposed to hot water get damaged at the cellular level. This greatly delays the grass or weed from growing back immediately the following week. Plus it will not leave any toxic residue that can harm pets or people.

Unfortunately, plants have an amazing ability to grow into the smallest of spaces. I suggest inviting your neighbour over and showing them what's been happening on your side of the fence. I propose putting the garden edging on the neighbour's side of the fence. This will hopefully stop the grass from spreading forward to the fence line. It will be necessary to trim the grass on their side of the fence before the garden edging is put in. If any grass or weed is caught between the fence and the garden edging the growth will not stop and you'll keep getting grass coming under the fence.  

Let me call on our experienced members @Adam_W and @TedBear for their recommendations.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric