You really don't want to hear this, lol. Identify what you have growing first. That is going to be the easiest way to decide how to deal with each type of plant you have and how to get rid of it best. Some things will need to be dug up, some things can be salted to death, or you can borrow my husband and let him either weed killer or fertilize the things to death. Depending on how each plant grows is dependent on how you will deal with getting rid of it. You can dig canna up all day and never get rid of it. You can poison it to death, and all you can do is keep digging it up.

When you have a project this size, I'd do the killing of the plants first and then deal with the rest of the gardens. In the event you do end up having to use some type of poison, it's easier to keep it from harming other gardens you have planted nearby if you do that project first then start rebuilding the soil and letting the poison leech out. Plus you need to think about what is planted on the other side of fence. Neighbors don't tend to be too neighborly if you are killing their side of the fence.

Have you talked to your neighbors? They may actually enjoy the jungle. I once went bare earth on a chainlink fence that was spectacularly overgrown with vines and shrubs, only to have my neighbor complain about the loss of privacy. To their eye, it wasn't a jungle, it was a soft, colorful screen to keep away prying eyes. They loved it and were annoyed I had removed it all out without asking them....

I keep that kind of massive clean up for warm winter days. I would cut back all of the vines I could, go all the way to the ground. I know chain link is a slow process to clear,hence that's why I do it in the winter a little at a time. Next spring when everything starts to grow, get out the round up or brush killer and apply as directed. This will take several cutting and spraying events. Know a lot of you are anti herbicide but with what you are describing I think it will be necessary. You will still have to keep an eye on the area and keep all the new growth dug out.

this is done after you check with the neighbors as suggested.

good luck

Yep,goats would work!!!

Y'all make me laugh. Goats would work but some neighbors don't appreciate having goats next door. I happen to love goats, but don't have any and don't want them. I already have enough animals and plants to feed and care for. We do have neighbors with goats, and if there is anything cuter than little kids playing in the pasture or goat yard, I don't know what it is. Goats are great unless they find a way into someone's vegetable garden, and then they can become demons of destruction.

Kate, I love invasive vines and plant them on purpose because they generally survive drought on no rainfall, unlike everything else around here. They do make a wonderful privacy screen. If you want to cut and remove them, you will have the best success by cutting them off at ground level and painting a brush killer onto the stumps. Or, drill holes in the stumps and pour the brush killer into the holes. Nothing else will get rid of aggresive vining plants, and there is nothing organic that works even 10% as well on aggressive vines as a synthetic brush killer. You have to be careful, though, and cannot compost any of the plant matter from plants treated with brush killer as it sometimes degrades very slowly and can survive the composting process and then kill plants you try to grow in compost that contains traces of the brush killer.

I am thinking about extending the eastern edge of our garden about 20' by moving the fence 20' east from where it sits now just so I can plant a row of aggressive vines along the east and south garden fencelines. I was watching our neighbor's hired hand drive back and forth pulling a spray rig behind him for the last two days and I know what this means 9 times out of 10. It means his herbicide drift will reach my tomato plants and severely harm or kill them. As I pondered what I could grow as a living border to protect the plants, it occurred to me that trumpet creeper would do it. Now I'm going to have to break the news to Tim that I want to extend the size of the garden just so I have room to plant some highly invasive vines. He hates putting up new fencing (after fencing in our 14.4 acres when we bought it, he swore he'd never put up any more fencing again). Ha! It is like pulling teeth to get him to put up more fencing, but I've managed to get him to fence in gardens, chicken runs and a dog yard that keeps our dogs contained in one spot.

Be sure you really want to get rid of the vines before you do it because it is a ton of work, and you lose a ton of privacy and also a living barrier that may keep your neighbors' use of herbicide from sending drift into your garden that will kill your plants. I get herbicide drift when local ranchers spray herbicides in their fields, when the county road workers spray roadside areas that are too steep to mow (like the banks of our creek near the county road/bridge), and when the railroad sprays the area alongside the tracks that are well over a mile away from us. The more highly invasive plants I can grow to our east the better since all the sprayed areas from which we get herbicide drift are to our east because our woodlands protect us from the south (mostly), the west and the north, the better it is for all the flowers, veggies and herbs I love to grow. Sometimes highly invasive vines serve a very useful purpose.

Good luck killing them, if you're sure that's what you want.

Dawn

It will be a losing battle. And hubs will have to poison some things for me I guess. It's really, really a mess. We live on a pretty small lot on a fairly tidy (except for my house!) residential street. Re: privacy screen 'o green - former neighbors liked the jungle atmosphere. Current neighbors aren't fans. If it was JUST eating the fence, I might not care, but since I'm on a narrow lot, it's hard to keep the honeysuckle and other vines off of the crepe myrtles, shrubs, asparagus, my little lilac bush, etc. Town living! Ugh! If i had some space, I could just point it all out into the wild, blue yonder and let it rip! I'm not ready to commit to goats, but I love the suggestion!! :) Thanks for the warnings, reality checks, and suggestions all!

I remember all too well what it is like to live in town, with neighbors too close and not enough sunny space for growing everything that I wanted to grow. And that, in a nutshell, is why we moved to the country.

It does sound like you're too crowded in terms of plants needing space, but please be careful with the herbicide use. Herbicides can volatize and travel unseen through the air and damage many things, including pretty much everything you choose to grow on purpose like flowers, shrubs, veggies, herbs, etc. Tomatoes and beans are probably the most vulnerable to most types of herbicide drift, but I've also had catnip, catmint, lemon balm and other herbs and some kinds of flowers killed by herbicide drift from a herbicide that was sprayed anywhere from 50 or 100 yards away from our property up to a mile away.

Gotcha Dawn. I've used a bit of paint on stuff on some honeysuckle in the past and we've drilled holes in stumps. I'm gonna try to keep it limited to applications like that. I'm already the crazy lady on the block who doesn't have our yard sprayed, etc. Beyond hurting plants, I'm personally disinterested in using a bunch of chemicals as I am a woman of childbearing age.

I've also got daylillies and star-of-bethlehem out the wazoo, as if vines weren't enough! Ok, I'm done griping. And I'll start saving my $$ for an acreage. ;)

I can deal with my honeysuckle and I like the privacy it provides, but I hate Virginia Creeper. It just grows everywhere here.