We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8 ft
high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is different
weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

In reply to Ed_Zep ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8 ft
high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is different
weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier. Or a big
industrial-strength petrol strimmer with a metal wire, which is an
afternoon's fun with a boy's toy.

Or a chainsaw, hedgetrimmer various applications of these until it gets
short enough to burn safely.

In reply to Martin ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:12:54 +0100, "Uncle Marvo"
wrote:

In reply to Ed_Zep ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8
ft high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is
different weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier.
Or a big industrial-strength petrol strimmer with a metal wire,
which is an afternoon's fun with a boy's toy.

Or a chainsaw, hedgetrimmer various applications of these until it
gets short enough to burn safely.


AFAIR an excavator was used to remove brambles from a similar garden.

If you want to use the soil again in much of a hurry, you need to. Bramble
roots are a pain. Glysophate will kill them, but they take ages to rot away.
But if you replant with something which doesn't care about the state of the
ground, you can plant as soon as the glysophate has washed in. Lupins,
hollyhocks, foxgloves, that kind of thing, they tend to root straight down
and won't care about the tangled mess underneath. I once put eight packets
of mixed wild flower seed on a similar situation. The effect in summer was
quite magical. Watch out for bees and butterflies.

"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to Ed_Zep ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8 ft
high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is different
weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier. Or a
big industrial-strength petrol strimmer with a metal wire, which is an
afternoon's fun with a boy's toy.

Or a chainsaw, hedgetrimmer various applications of these until it gets
short enough to burn safely.

Been there done that with 8 feet high brambles. Glyphosate is no good on
brambles, it just makes them look poorly for a few weeks then they continue
growing with slightly deformed foliage. Even with repeat full strength doses
it survives. You have to use the strong weedkiller. Digging them up will not
succeed either as they will regrow from small missed bits of root. Best bet
is to chop them down with a powerful strimmer first, burn or otherwise
dispose of the cut brambles, then spray the remainder. A repeat spray may be
needed if they start to sprout again. Once brambles get a good hold they are
difficult to eradicate, where they touch the ground they root so tend to
layer themselves all over the place.
-
David.

In reply to David (Normandy) ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to Ed_Zep ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8
ft high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is
different weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier.
Or a big industrial-strength petrol strimmer with a metal wire,
which is an afternoon's fun with a boy's toy.

Or a chainsaw, hedgetrimmer various applications of these until it
gets short enough to burn safely.

Been there done that with 8 feet high brambles. Glyphosate is no good
on brambles, it just makes them look poorly for a few weeks then they
continue growing with slightly deformed foliage. Even with repeat
full strength doses it survives. You have to use the strong
weedkiller. Digging them up will not succeed either as they will
regrow from small missed bits of root. Best bet is to chop them down
with a powerful strimmer first, burn or otherwise dispose of the cut
brambles, then spray the remainder. A repeat spray may be needed if
they start to sprout again. Once brambles get a good hold they are
difficult to eradicate, where they touch the ground they root so tend
to layer themselves all over the place. -
David.

Keep Glysophating. You'll need more than a couple of goes.

But yes, they are pure evil. SBK will kill them, and most other things, and
you can't regrow for a while.

"Ed_Zep" wrote
We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8 ft
high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is different
weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

We had similar next to one of our allotments and we cut them down to the
ground and just kept mowing over them so any regrowth was cut off. None
there the next season.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to Martin ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:12:54 +0100, "Uncle Marvo"
wrote:

In reply to Ed_Zep ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8
ft high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is
different weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier.
Or a big industrial-strength petrol strimmer with a metal wire,
which is an afternoon's fun with a boy's toy.

Or a chainsaw, hedgetrimmer various applications of these until it
gets short enough to burn safely.


AFAIR an excavator was used to remove brambles from a similar garden.

If you want to use the soil again in much of a hurry, you need to. Bramble
roots are a pain. Glysophate will kill them, but they take ages to rot
away. But if you replant with something which doesn't care about the state
of the ground, you can plant as soon as the glysophate has washed in.
Lupins, hollyhocks, foxgloves, that kind of thing, they tend to root
straight down and won't care about the tangled mess underneath. I once put
eight packets of mixed wild flower seed on a similar situation. The effect
in summer was quite magical. Watch out for bees and butterflies.


Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier.
where can i buy SBK as i have a similar problem

Ed_Zep wrote:

We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8 ft
high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is different
weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching TV
and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I was
going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house next
year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Try Root Out sprayed on. Add adrop or two of detergent to ensure the
leaves are wetted. Takes a while to act

Malcolm

Thanks very much to everyone for the helpful replies.

Ed.

"David (Normandy)" writes


Been there done that with 8 feet high brambles. Glyphosate is no good on
brambles, it just makes them look poorly for a few weeks then they continue
growing with slightly deformed foliage. Even with repeat full strength doses
it survives. You have to use the strong weedkiller. Digging them up will not
succeed either as they will regrow from small missed bits of root.

That's overstating a bit. They'll grow from missed plant centres, even
if you've cut off all the top growth, but they won't grow from isolated
bits of root in the same way that, eg, bindweed would.


--
Kay

In reply to Alan ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to Martin ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:12:54 +0100, "Uncle Marvo"
wrote:

In reply to Ed_Zep ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo,
say :
We're talking *seriously* overgrown. Brambles have grown to over 8
ft high and spread into my garden. The rest of the garden is
different weeds but the whole plot is overgrown.

She spends her time looking after her elderly father and watching
TV and seems to have no inclination to do anything about it so I
was going to offer to help.

Apart from being a good neighbour, I may want to sell my house
next year.

Can anyone recommend the expeditious way of clearing all this
(particularly the brambles). The area of brambles is about 6 feet
wide, 8ft high, 20 feet long?

Thanks, Ed.

Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier.
Or a big industrial-strength petrol strimmer with a metal wire,
which is an afternoon's fun with a boy's toy.

Or a chainsaw, hedgetrimmer various applications of these until it
gets short enough to burn safely.


AFAIR an excavator was used to remove brambles from a similar
garden.

If you want to use the soil again in much of a hurry, you need to.
Bramble roots are a pain. Glysophate will kill them, but they take
ages to rot away. But if you replant with something which doesn't
care about the state of the ground, you can plant as soon as the
glysophate has washed in. Lupins, hollyhocks, foxgloves, that kind
of thing, they tend to root straight down and won't care about the
tangled mess underneath. I once put eight packets of mixed wild
flower seed on a similar situation. The effect in summer was quite
magical. Watch out for bees and butterflies.
Either SBK (serious stuff) or Glysophate. The latter is friendlier.
where can i buy SBK as i have a similar problem

Any garden centre should sell it. It stands for something Brushwood Killer.
I can't remember what the something is. You need rubber gloves. It will take
down quite sizeable trees if applied with a bit of diesel. May take more
than one go, but it *will* work. You may wish to read the instructions
before purchasing and make your decision based on that :-)

"K" wrote in message
...
"David (Normandy)" writes


Been there done that with 8 feet high brambles. Glyphosate is no good on
brambles, it just makes them look poorly for a few weeks then they
continue
growing with slightly deformed foliage. Even with repeat full strength
doses
it survives. You have to use the strong weedkiller. Digging them up will
not
succeed either as they will regrow from small missed bits of root.

That's overstating a bit. They'll grow from missed plant centres, even if
you've cut off all the top growth, but they won't grow from isolated bits
of root in the same way that, eg, bindweed would.


--
Kay

I speak from the experience of getting rid of over half an acre of mature
brambles. Maybe some varieties of brambles differ in their ability to grow
from a piece of root, ours certainly have done. Size of root may also be a
factor? I started doing the original clearance with a strimmer with a
brushwood attachment which was very slow work. The man laying our new drive
suggested clearing the lot with his JCB digger which was great, he ripped
the lot off at ground level. At least we could get onto the land after that.

As the brambles re-grew I used glyphosate on at least three occasions over a
few months and frankly it was useless and just made them yellow and the
leaves curl a bit. Finally I bought some brushwood killer (it had a big
picture of brambles on the label) and that was much more effective.

However, there were still "new" brambles coming up in various places so I
dug those out. Some were just growing from bits of root left in the ground
and some from shoots that had been accidentally "layered" by the JCB burying
them. After a years work the brambles finally seemed to be beaten so I
rotovated the area, removing all stragglers and levelled it off and put
grass seed down. Unfortunately we are now getting lots of brambles coming up
in the lawns so are hoping the constant mowing will finally kill them off.

David.

In article , "David
(Normandy)" writes

Unfortunately we are now getting lots of brambles coming up
in the lawns so are hoping the constant mowing will finally kill them off.


I'm guessing that maybe some/a lot of these could be from seed? Or are
they all big and beefy?

I've got some 'cultivated' blackberries - actually, I think they're
wild, but I keep them under control as they are delicious, big and juicy
- and they love opera and going to the theatre...

They do have some of the most vicious thorns though.

Each year there are a lot of little new plants coming up where I've let
some of the unpicked berries fall. They are quite different from
layered or root grown plants.

--
regards andyw

I'm guessing that maybe some/a lot of these could be from seed? Or are
they all big and beefy?

I've got some 'cultivated' blackberries - actually, I think they're wild,
but I keep them under control as they are delicious, big and juicy - and
they love opera and going to the theatre...

They do have some of the most vicious thorns though.

Each year there are a lot of little new plants coming up where I've let
some of the unpicked berries fall. They are quite different from layered
or root grown plants.

--
regards andyw


Probably some are from seeds. The land had been completely untouched
for between 10 and 20 years and was impenetrable even with a machete. There
must have been thousands of bramble seeds fall over that time. They are
certainly persistent.

Link to a "before photo" of part of the land:

http://www.avisoft.co.uk/P9230016.JPG

At the time I was trying to get rid of the brambles by burning some of the
rubbish and a mountain of old magazines left by the previous occupants of
the property. This approach had negligible effect, a flame thrower would
have been better.

Photo of this part of the property as it is today, converted into a small
orchard:

http://www.avisoft.co.uk/Hpim5398a.jpg

There are other larger pieces of land around the property which were
similarly overgrown with brambles and have since been converted to lawns
(with brambles) :-(

David.

"David (Normandy)" writes

"K" wrote in message
...
"David (Normandy)" writes


Been there done that with 8 feet high brambles. Glyphosate is no good on
brambles, it just makes them look poorly for a few weeks then they
continue
growing with slightly deformed foliage. Even with repeat full strength
doses
it survives. You have to use the strong weedkiller. Digging them up will
not
succeed either as they will regrow from small missed bits of root.

That's overstating a bit. They'll grow from missed plant centres, even if
you've cut off all the top growth, but they won't grow from isolated bits
of root in the same way that, eg, bindweed would.


I speak from the experience of getting rid of over half an acre of mature
brambles.

I can't match half an acre but I have got rid of a lot of bramble
patches in my time.

Maybe some varieties of brambles differ in their ability to grow
from a piece of root, ours certainly have done. Size of root may also be a
factor?

I started doing the original clearance with a strimmer with a
brushwood attachment which was very slow work. The man laying our new drive
suggested clearing the lot with his JCB digger which was great, he ripped
the lot off at ground level. At least we could get onto the land after that.

I think that's where our different experience lies. If you trace a
bramble back to a root, there a sort of node from which the shoots
arise. If you simply chop off just above that or even chop through it,
then it re-grows, no problem. If, however, you get below that node, so
that all that is left in the ground is the feeder roots, IME it does not
re-grow.


--
Kay