When I moved in to the house on May 15, 2013, all of the ground along the back fence, and much of the fence itself, was covered with star jasmine. I took this photo of the corner between the back and east fence on August 23, 2013.
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Near the western end of the back fence, the star jasmine continued in a thin strip on the ground, but it didn't cover much of the fence. In a small area, some Algerian ivy had taken hold there. I took this photo on September 5, 2013.
On September 16, 2013, I planted a shrimp plant about six feet from the western end of the back fence.
On September 22, 2013, I worked on clearing the ground of star jasmine in the corner between the back fence and the east fence. When I cleared out the vines, I could see the bad condition of the fence there.
Just to the west of the cleared area, a large mass of star jasmine vines hung down from the back neighbor's live oak. Mixed in with the jasmine were a few young grape ivy vines.
By September 28, 2013, I put a white autumn sage against the fence to the east of the shrimp plant. After I transfered it here, it lost all of its flowers.
Probably on the same day, I put a cardinal flower plant by the back fence to the east of the white autumn sage. It began looking unhealthy soon after I transplanted it. As these two photos show, I had recently cleared away some star jasmine to make room for them. You can see the star jasmine on the left side of the white autumn sage photo and on the right side of the cardinal flower plant.
On October 12, 2013, the bird bath by the back fence was filled with fallen goldenrain tree flowers.
On November 3, 2013, the flowers in the bird bath were replaced with the outer shells of goldenrain tree seed pods.
On February 16, 2014, I installed my trellises near the middle of the back fence. The larger trellis was in a clear area and the two smaller trellises were put where there was still a lot of star jasmine. They already have a mound in front of them, which I covered with leaves until I was ready to sow seeds there. There is also a small pile of dirt between the big trellis and the small ones. I intended to plant something else there.
I planted some cucumber seeds on the small trellises and cantaloupe on the large one. On March 23, 2014, some cucumber seedlings emerged.
As you can see in the background of the picture below, also taken on February 16, 2014, I had continued maintaining a wood pile near the eastern end of the back fence, where I had removed the star jasmine on September 22, 2013.
On April 6, 2014, The cucumber plants were getting a good start on the trellises, and I had put a lemon basil transplant in some dirt nearby. Star jasmin still covered the area behind that trellis, and many goldenrain tree seedlings were popping up through the grass in front.
On May 17, 2014, to the west of the trellises, the hackberry tree and butterfly bush were both growing well against the back fence.
On May 18, the cucumber plants had climbed the trellis and were flowering. However, the cantaloupe plants were hardly growing at all. On the mound, the squash and black-eyed peas were growing pretty well. Lemon basil was growing at the western end of the small trellises, and sweet basil was dong well near the eastern end.
On that day, I also moved the old star jasmine vines I had pulled up a while before onto the living jasmine to the east of the trellises. This was the first step towards removing as much of the jasmine as I could from the back fence.
On June 10, 2014, a papaya tree was starting to grow near the western end of the star jasmine patch along the back fence. I had bought a papaya at a store, then put the seeds in my compost. When I spread the compost, the seeds moved with it.
The western half of the back fence area on June 17, 2014.
By September 27, 2014, the papaya tree was over three feet tall.
On that day, the hackberry bush, Algerian ivy, a much shrunken patch of star jasmine, long suckers from a chopped down crape myrtle, and some goldenrain tree seedlings were competing for the small patch of land on the other side of the shrimp plant.
By that time, I had removed most of the star jasmine in the east half of the back fence, but vines were still poking in through the gaps between the fence pickets. A stump from a short crape myrtle remained as well since it would be hard to remove completely.
On October 19, 2014, the eastern end of the fence had a beautyberry bush, along with a small hackberry sapling, a small nandina, resurging star jasmine, grape ivy climbing the east fence, and some small oriental false hawksbeard basal rosettes.
By October 26, 2014, almost all of the star jasmine had been removed from the back fence, with only a few individual vines visible on the pickets. The large trellis was bare, and the smaller trellises had been removed.
By November 2, 2014, I had put sticks, perhaps from the crape myrtle I had recently cut down in the herb garden, near the eastern end of the back fence. Also, I had removed all the trellises.
On November 9, 2014, logs and smaller branches that I had cut from between the fences were in a pile on the ground. Another pile was by the east fence.
On January 24, 2015, I had just put a muscadine grape vine in the ground but had not yet started setting up the wire for it. The papaya tree, in the background, was suffering from an earlier freeze, and the star jasmine between it and the fence had grown back some.
By February 1, 2015, I had covered a large area in front of the back fence with leaves. I covered a narrow area where I had recently put back the trellises.
In January, after a freeze, I cut down the main papaya tree, thinking it was dead, which might have been true. On February 1, the two baby trees that had been on either side of the mother, looked healthy.
[more to come here...]
On March 20, 2016, after I had started planting in my new raised beds, the wood chips I had spread behind and between the beds left very little visible vegetation along the back fence.
On May 7, 2017, I took a series of pictures showing all the growth by the back fence.
