How did I miss you lot? Please help me with my brambles

[mc55 10]

I haven't got a spade yet lol! I thought if I dug round it and pulled/kicked/screamed really hard it might come out but all that happened was I got covered in muck and a bent trowel

 

LOL ... yep, that's about what I would have expected !

[baileys_mum 10]

I spose it gave the neighbours something to chuckle at tho

[Yellowrose 10]

They will be laughing at me too! Ive lost my trowels and have planted some snowdrops using a wooden spatula and a childs plastic spade! I am reluctant to buy another because I know the other two will turn up the minute I buy one.

[torin8 10]

They will be laughing at me too! Ive lost my trowels and have planted some snowdrops using a wooden spatula and a childs plastic spade! I am reluctant to buy another because I know the other two will turn up the minute I buy one.

 

Ah well worst come to worse pop down to B&Q they are selling decent basic fork and spade for £4.98 each - saved my bacon today when I broke my spade in half!

[baileys_mum 10]

How did you manage to break it in half!

[Ginger_Kitty 10]

hehe it was MY spade he broke in half

 

it was originally my grandads, had served me well for years but the wood was a little knackered and it broke while torin was digging up the ground elder (nasty evil stuff) in our garden.

[baileys_mum 10]

I thought you meant the actual spade bit lol

[torin8 10]

I thought you meant the actual spade bit lol

 

Ah gimmie chance - I'll break that bit later

[Ginger_Kitty 10]

Ah gimmie chance - I'll break that bit later

 

you had better not I'm sick of damn spades already!!!!!

 

[craigpugh 10]

branbles- my allotment was covered in them about 8 feet high when i took it on.

 

Step 1- cut it right down to the ground

 

Step 2- weaken the roots by the following- wait till it throws up little baby leaves, then spray with a weedkiller containing glyophosphate (the active ingredient in roundup, but with roundup you pay forn the brand. wilko do an own brand systemic weedkiller with glyophosphate, which is just as good and a 3rd the price)

 

Step 3- continue to weaken the plant by covering it with something totally light proof such as a piece of thick old carpet, a few layers of black polythene, etc. If you want to make it look passable, you can put nice mulch, bark, pebbles, what have you, over your manky carpet covering.

 

Step 4- leave for as long as possible, a year is best.

 

Step 5- this time next year, dig the stump up.

 

This is on the basis of spending 18 months fighting the war of the brambles, i learnt that digging them up is a long hard struggle, and you never get ALL the network of roots up. But once your dug up the main clump, the offshoots of small roots etc will be left in the ground. They will gradually grow back into plants which rapidly get a hold. B-*%$sds!

 

By taking the slightly longer burn but actually less effort and more chilled 5 nstep approach as above, by the time you dig it up, the systemic weedkiller and weakening effcet of light-deprivation means that the smaller roots will have perished. You dig the stump out, and the whole thing is gone.

 

Burning the hole, pouring in salt, 'deeproot' and all that nonsense will just be a distraction. Believe me i've spent many wild-eyed hours hacking away up that allotment, and have tried it all.

 

I cant believe people actuially PLANT the things!! Nuts. Crazyy. I'm a little obsessed, can you tell.

 

Death to brambles.

[smogit 10]

Please don't salt or bleach the ground it may work, but only if you want to kill everything for years to come.

 

craigpugh's advice will work.

 

This is my method though, every fortnight

1) Cut bramble back hard, but leave some leaf.

2) Spray remaining leaves with glyophosphate weed killer.

 

I killed a biggie of with this method in under 6 months, the trick here is to use up the energy stored in the roots, this will with luck kill off the whole plant, such that even if you leave bits of root in the soil it won't come back.

 

If you want to save money, just cut hard (to the soil) back as new leaves appear. It will take a little longer, but has the same effect.

 

Digging the root out will help, but as with the cutting back method this will still take a long time.

 

Lastly if it is a very big thug, and you follow the cover with plastic method (mentioned by others), it will be more than capable of pushing off, around or through what ever you use. So check every fortnight lift the covering and cut it back again. It wills top, when it runs out of energy!

[craigpugh 10]

yes it is very worth understanding how the plant works- know your enemy and all that! The leaves make energy through the light. Stopping the plant growing leaves, or blotting out the light stops it building up m ore energy.

 

But the bramble will retain a little energy store in its roots. Just enough to grow a little shoot... the leaves from this will them start converting light to energy again.

 

So you basically want the roots to exhaust their energy reserves, they will then just burn out and wither to dead organic matter, after which you are safe from the evil bramble threat.

 

!!