Experiment: using leafy greens as a barrier!

Last year, the milkweed patch on the side of my house came up as usual, the monarch butterflies arrived and laid their eggs, everything was great, and then one day I noticed that the milkweed near the neighbor’s fence was yellow and the caterpillars were mostly gone. I immediately knew what had happened: the plants were sprayed with chemicals. I choose to believe that the chemicals were sprayed on their fence line by the landscaping people and that this toxic stuff drifted over to my side through the openings on the fence. I definitely hope it was not an intentional act. A few caterpillars did make it but it was a fraction compared to the year before and that was truly heartbreaking, especially considering the monarch butterfly is so close to being listed as endangered.

So now that the milkweeds are back, I’ve been trying to think of a way to add a barrier at the bottom and up to at least a foot to prevent a chemical drift situation again. I found a few fence coverings online, mostly bamboo, but they are too tall (4’+) and would need some type of support like tposts or stakes, which is too involved and costly. I need my barrier to blend in and not affect the view on their side or damage their fence. I kept thinking to myself, what do I already have around that I can use to make this barrier? After many hours of contemplation and googling crazy things, it came to me: a swiss chard barrier. I have swiss chard seeds, which I never use because we don’t like swiss chard, and from what I’ve read this plant tolerates poor soil so I think it can work. The only issue might be watering the chard on a consistent basis, but I can probably find a way around that.

A little backstory:

The border between my property and the neighbor’s property. is one place that gives me a lot of anxiety: This area is about 4′ wide by 45′ long and historically, it has been a huge clusterf*ck.

We moved in 10 years ago and that was way before I knew anything about gardening or environmental conservation, so for the first few years we just went back there periodically with a weed whacker and decimated everything. The next few years after that we just ignored it and let it grow wild. The neighbor’s fence is only about 3 feet tall, and at one point it became very evident that they were really upset about this unkempt area that faced their home. One day, they sent their landscapers onto our property to cut everything down on that side, but I happened to be home and was able to stop it. Good thing too because by this time I had realized that we had a huge field of common milkweed growing back there from the years of letting things grow unchecked. I was in the process of fixing that area up but I was completely overwhelmed and broke (plants, tools, and amendments cost $! Up until that point, we hadn’t had any interaction with our neighbors besides an occasional wave hello, so it was shocking to realize that we had unknowingly been rude neighbors and that they basically hated us. They were rude too for violating our property like that instead of letting us know how they felt, and to this day I am still consumed with worry every single time I hear their landscaping crew cutting the grass because I fear they are cutting on my side.

Well, since then we’ve done a few things here and there to not let it get so crazy and wild back there. We’ve pulled out lots of young trees and my father in law does some periodic weeding here and there. I also made the front garden on that side look much nicer by adding a Joe Pye weed in the center and other smaller plants, and by keeping the area mulched and weeded. I let the milkweed spread to the front as well and it looks much more cohesive, so compared to 10 years ago, that side looks 10 times better. In 2018, we had a huge surge in Monarch caterpillars and that was probably the second time I ever interacted with my neighbor because he was so amazed to see so many caterpillars. He told me he had not seen a caterpillar since he was a child! That was a great year. 2019? Not so much because of this chemical drift issue.

Well, here’s to a better year for the Monarchs on my property. I’m soaking the Swiss chard seeds in some water and I will sow them tomorrow. I read that they take about 60 days to reach maturity, which means the barrier will be up til at least the end of July and probably a few months after that. The Swiss chard will probably bolt and go to seed, but that’s fine since we won’t be eating it. I will post an update in a few weeks with my results! ✌