I've been putting it off.  I have a fan dipole, shallow inverted V, with about 15' of paracord from end insulators to eyebolts along the top of a wood privacy fence on the side of my yard.  Near the front of the house there is Confederate Jasmine growing on the fence, and it is quite nice looking.  In the spring it grows white flowers that smell very good, fills the air for quite a ways.

But if you look up close it is a climbing vine.  The vines wrap around each other, braid together, look like wiring harnesses.  And the vines seem to "reach" up toward the antenna rope and wire and then wrap around when it gets high enough. It is as if the vines can see the wire, no kidding.

My wife had been telling me I needed to trim it back from the antenna, specifically one end of the 75 m section out front.  My SWR was whacky lately, way high on 75 meters, and the best the LDG AT-1000 could do is 1.6:1.

I went out and looked, a real mess.  The Jasmine was wrapped around the rope, and up past the insulator, around the wire.  Further, there were more vines, or ropes of vines, going straight up to the end of the wire, wrapping around, big ropes of vines bigger around than my thumb, made up of 10-12 1/8" diameter vines twisted together.  This all wrapped tightly around the wire and tie-off rope, and extended 10'-12' up the wire end.

My wife and it went out early this morning and trimmed all that away.  By 09:00 it was hot, we were soaked in sweat, but finished.

This might be of interest to you:

Fan Dipole

75 m element with Confederate Jasmine growing up tie-off rope and up around 10' or so of wire on one side.

Analyzer readings before:

Mhz   SWR   Z    L      C (pf)
3.5   1.9   60   2.73   750
3.552 1.7 (minimum)
3.6   1.7   51   2.24   858
3.7   2.0   45   1.94   934
3.8   2.6   44   1,85   946
3.9   3.0   45   1.90   862
4.0   3.8   51   2.04   771

After trimming away vegetation:

3.5   4.1   83   3.70   533
3.6   3.4   104  4.53   419
3.7   2.4   109  4.59   387
3.8   1.5   76   3.16   544
3.855 1.1 (minimum)
3.9   1.4   46   1.85   897
4.0   2.5   39   1.43   1113  

I am still undecided whether to trim the end of the wire slightly, get that 1.1:1 minimum SWR up to 3.900 mhz, or live with it as is.  It used to be at 3.9 mhz, but apparently over the years the wire has stretched a bit.  I seldom go down to the 80 m CW/Dig portion of the band, and if I do I have the tuner.  But it's nice to know I can operate the whole 75 m (3.8-4.0) region at just under 2:1 without tuner if necessary.  I think with it centered at 3.9 mhz, it was 1.9:1 at 3.8 and 4.0 mhz.

But the main thing about all this is the effect vegetation had on SWR, resonance, etc.  This IS insulated wire, 14 ga stranded MTW.

My initial thought when I saw the title was that this was either in the wrong forum or needed an [NSFW] tag.

One of the reasons I'm waiting on putting up my HF antenna is that I need to get rid of that scrub oak in the backyard anyways and there are tales of dried leaves being ignited.

You, sir, have a dirty mind.

I'm still trying to figure out what you were thinking, but I'm sure it was dirty, all the same.  

Trim mine once or twice a week when I mow the yard over my radial field

I was relieved to see this wasn't a thread about manscaping.

Hey, what he does on his own time has nothing to do with this sound antenna tip...

And all this time, BD, I though you were my friend.  You aren't helping.

I didn't take a "before" photo, but this is what it was like.










After trimming.



Believe it or not, there is a wood privacy fence under all that.



You can see a few tendrils already reaching up.  I'll take other photos in a few days.

I was up working at a wildland fire last week so I assumed he was talking about clearing a defensable space around his home.

The morning glory at my place in Oregon braids up into vines just like that, and like you say it seems like they see wires & cables and climb as far as you let them, and they grow FAST.   And late in the season lots of SPIDERS hide in them.

Been chopping those things up for 30 years now, they ALWAYS come back.

Could be worse.....could be kudzu.

That crap was all over Georgia when I was growing up. It's commonly called "The vine that ate the South".  

Spiders is one thing... for this, there's yellow jackets* in there somewhere!


* A type of very aggressive wasp.

Way over on the left side... note the Plexiglas end insulator:




This is one of the original insulators a club member made for me when I was just a SWL (short wave listener), before
becoming a licensed ham.  They came over with coax and a box of supplies.... "Need a penny, take a penny.

"Have a penny PL-259, leave a penny PL-259."  

Like at the 7-11.  Club members put antenna stuff in the box for new hams, throw them an antenna party.

Still using those same end insulators.  

I had some confederate jasmine, HAD some confederate jasmine.

When I die, I want to come back as that stuff, it is the ornamental Kudzu of plants.

Well now, at least you don't have to stain your fence.
The before\after numbers were interesting, not surprising.

that Confederate jasmine is some hardcore stuff.  good pix showing it looking like a wiring harness.  had that in the backyard of an old place i rented.  would wrap itself around a brick column on the porch & make it's way to the covered roof.

needed constant 'scaping.

it's pretty, but an invasive plant from China, like the kudzu a previous poster mentioned.  eats everything in its path.  its flowers are pretty in springtime, though

Between the Jasmine and Bamboo, I could not think of better security fencing.  You'd have to hack your way through it with a machete, make lots of noise, no sneaking
through that stuff.

Freshly clipped on Monday:




Thursday, tendrils already reaching up toward end of 75 meter segment:




Closeup, freshly clipped on Monday:




Closeup, Thursday:




It's insidious!!!

Have you considered a higher power infidel plant killing amplifier?  Isn't the high voltage node at the end of a dipole?  With the proper power supply and finals you should be able to simply vaporize the invasive plants each time you use the radio, Tesla be willing.

inshatesla

I scream Holla Snackbar and zap with 800 watts from my AL-811H, but to little effect.  This plant is just too wet to catch on fire.  

When you chop it the vines immediately begin to drip a white, sticky liquid that gets in what little hair on my head, on my arms,
and later feels like I have rubber glue all over me.

LOL!  I picture it looking something like The Thing from Another World (1951) - James Arness (Matt Dillon from "Gunsmoke") played the monster.