Would plywood on fence to protect from vines trap moisture and rot?

10 months ago

My neighbor's star jasmine grows up our fence and essentially knocked down the last terribly installed one, so we're replacing it. There's zero chance of her getting rid of her jasmine and she is virtually impossible to talk to and very unreasonable when we attempt to, so we're trying to figure out how to keep this from happening again.

I read that a physical barrier between the jasmine and the fence is basically the requirement, although trimming can help, and I do intend to be as diligent as possible in trimming it back from our side (although I have blackberries on our side making it very unfun to get to), but I can't get to her side to keep it off the fence, and her side has the rails and post ends, making for easy climbing.

We are thinking of installing a thin sheet of exterior plywood on her side of the fence, which would just barely reach from the top of the bottom rail to the bottom of the top rail, and would also block access to the holes in the postmaster posts, except for the bottom 8". We'd just staple it to the rails and use bolts to attach to the metal posts, so in the event that she or a new owner wanted to get rid of the jasmine and take the ugly plywood down, they could.

My concern is that adding the plywood would trap moisture inside the fence, between the pickets on our side and the plywood on hers, and cause rot. Is this a valid concern? We're in California, with a wet season and dry season, so hopefully that would somewhat minimize this potential, but I'm still concerned.

Adding the plywood is going to be difficult, because it's really hard to get to anything from her side of the fence through the jasmine (and she has two video cameras facing into our yard to watch us build the fence, and she is generally crazy about us not going on her property, although seemingly a bit forgiving while we're building her a free fence), plus it's ugly and adds cost, so if there's another solution, or if this solution might cause more harm than good, I'm happy to scrap it.

Featured Answer

Monique

10 months ago

That will not begin to work. Only annual maintenance works.

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Comments (6)

beesneeds
10 months ago
Trim what you can on your fence. If you want to attach a board to your fence, that would be up to you. You don't say what kind of fence it is. Not sure if that would be a blessing or a curse to mess with if you don't keep up with trimming and it eats up the boards.
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ShadyWillowFarm
10 months ago
Can you take some pictures? Is the fence right on the property line, or can you have it built far enough inside the property line that you can spray a 12 month herbicide to prevent anything growing up your fence?
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
10 months ago
Where is there any scientific evidence that jasmine growing on a fence hurts the fence? If anything, it will protect the fence from weather and harnful UV rays of the sun. It certainly looks nicer.
ci_lantro
10 months ago
last modified: 10 months ago
Why put a wooden fence back up? I would use some type of wire fence--anything from chain link to cattle panels to high end architectural welded wire--and let the jasmine do its thing and enjoy.
Carrie Ashendel
Original Author
10 months ago
last modified: 10 months ago
Sorry, it's your standard privacy fence, in this case dog-eared redwood with three rails, which are on her side. It's on our property but goes right up to the property line. Her star jasmine is on the north side of the fence, and without a doubt destroyed the last fence, as it is notorious for doing, regardless of whether there is "scientific proof" of it. It gets in between the pickets and rails and pries things apart. Neither herbicide (organic garden, plus just general concern for the earth) nor wire fence (we both want immediate privacy from each other) are an option, plus anything other than a standard privacy fence would be highly unusual in this neighborhood and our permit is already for this kind of fence, so changing things would require talking, which she refuses to do, and if she did, I'm sure she would not be okay with it.

We decided to just build the fence and do our best to at least keep the jasmine from growing through the fence from our side, which I know won't do much given that all the structure for the fence is on her side, hidden behind the pickets, but we didn't want to potentially upset her further by adding the plywood. She's extremely volatile, so it seems best to just build the fence, so we have our privacy, and let it last as long as it will last.