I've just got an allotment - they told me today (hurray! It feels like a Birthday present - I've been trying for 1.5 years and finally get one on the day before my 40th Birthday )

It was full of 8 year old brambles which the allotment committee have cut back and used roundup to kill them. The roots, of course, are still in there and need to be got out.

Now I was thinking that I'd just use a fork or spade and dig them out, but just as the committee were leaving the site, one of them commented over his shoulder 'oh, by the way, you already know that you'll need a pick axe to hack out the roots, don't you?" He didn't appear to be joking. So ... is there a special technique to getting bramble roots out? Or is it just like I thought - you dig them out normally?

Hope someone can advise me.
Caroline

Prob an over statement unless the ground hasn't been dug for a number of years the only way to find out is give the digging a go.
Best of luck with your new lottie
Love best wishes Bubblewrap
PS you could always try Semtex

I am slowly digging out an area of brambles to make my veggie plot. I am using the old-fashioned fork and brute force method. It works okay. I haven't resorted to the pickaxe yet as I find the roots are quite shallow and seem to come every few feet in a sort of 'bush'. Now my bramble patch has been developing for 10 years and I am not currently as strong as I used to be, so I think you will manage just fine with normal digging. good luck with it and best advice is take it gently or you will do yourself a hurt.

happy birthday

Thanks And phew! I knew it would be hard work (it hasn't been dug or touched in any way until they nuked it with weedkiller, Bubblewrap), but I panicked a bit at the thought of pick axes and crow bars! Digging I can do if I take it slowly, just like you say Shirley.

Caroline

Whatever you use to get them out, just make sure you wear a VERY thick pair of gloves.

I've got an allotment, I've got an allotment, I've got an allotment, yoo be doobi do! I've got an allotment.

Did I mention that I have an allotment, by the way?

:

Thanks for the tip, Terrier. Will do.
Caroline

Hey, Caroline - do you have an allotment?
CONGRATULATIONS
Whadya goina do with it?

Congratulations Caroline! I only got my allotment a few weeks ago and was literally so excited that I couldn't sleep!

Mine is also long untended and full of brambles. I'm finding them hard work with a spade but not impossible. I haven't tried one but azadas are supposed to be good for getting out roots (I guess they're sort of halway between a pickaxe and a spade). There are some here:

http://www.get-digging.co.uk/tools.htm

Claire

Oh yes! Result! Let's see the piccies when you have them CW as we are
very nosy as you know.

Brambles seem to be 'weed of choice' on our new grapes allotments currently, which means that you can all compare notes! Seriously, at least you've had them chopped down and zapped (tho' don't think that that's the end of them....) and as the others say, bit at a time.

Well done!

May I recommend a mattock - it's a sort of pick axe and I have found it effective in digging out brambles and general breaking up the ground. Good luck with your new allotment. It is hard work but worth it and remember you don't have to master it all in one go.

Well done - Lucky girl! And happy 40th by the way. Life begins .... etc

I,d recomend a good stanless steal fork and spade the one i got last year now has 2 bent prongsboth the outer ones ar stright
so a new fork and spade is on the xmas list

Congratulations, what a superb birthday present- i remember how elated i felt last year when i got mine! It was 100ft long and overgrown to shoulder height with brambles/docks/nettles etc and I marked out large beds and tackled one at at time with a good stainless steel fork. Then i bought a huge trailer of horse muck and dug it all in. Everything i have tried to grow has been good except cauliflowers and ive made some great new friends. i was surprised recently when one of the 'good ole boys '
(some have been there 40yrs) asked me if I had any secrets to my success- i felt really good, that is the closest one might get to a compliment down our way( Norfolk). Anyway could tell so many tales but must get on with my big batch of cream if artichoke soup. This Grow your own forum has offered the best advice ever and I dont even have time to read the mag any more. best of luck ,Actiongran.

My lottie was shoulder high with brambles and docks too. Dock roots go really deep, best to pull out with a twisting motion when the soil is damp/wet. Bramble roots don't seem to go too deep, but each plant makes lots of roots which go sideways under the ground. I've tried with a good stainless steel fork - the younger ones come up OK, but the older ones I've had to dig a hole round the roots and get them out one by one. They do weaken over time, even if you get new shoots come up they seem to pull up fairly easily.