What am I going to do with all these brambles!?!

[Snadger]

Can you not chop the majority down and stack them in a heap, then ask your site association to get you a skip, as, after all you are doing them a favour by clearing the site.

I've often wondered if a skip is the green solution? All you are doing is transferring your problem to someone else arent you?

Far better I would have thought to compost what you can and burn what you can't. Both ways you are enriching your soil with the ash and the compost!
Stuff that can't be burned or composted can usually be used in another way ie broken bricks and slabs of concrete for paths and there are no end of uses for scrap metal, for plant supports and ties.

Without being too presumptious, I think we sometimes need to use a bit of lateral thinking and try and utilise what we have!

[pigletwillie]

We have just cleared out a large area of brambles on our new plot. Thankfully, very little grows uinder it so the ground is quite clear (in most cases) and ready to go.

We are allowed bonfires on the first Wednesday of each month but its only generally during winter that anything is burnt. Stack it up and light it, it will soon frizzle away.

Burning plant waste is carbon neutral and like burning wood only releases the carbon thats its locked up. Obviously composting it is best but its just not a goer with brambles as mentioned previously. Moving it via a skip certainly isnt carbon neutral.

[Minty]

Hi Claire. I had the same problem. I sourced from my local scrap metal merchants an empty oil drum( cost was " just the price of a pint mate ") and burnt them little by little. I even found that they burnt quite well when freshly cut so soon got rid of.
I quite enjoy cutting brambles as they make a massive visual difference when you have cut them down, make you feel like you have done a good job.
Good luck. YOU WILL GET THERE !!. Minty

[Becca]

If you do decide to cart any of them away I can highly recommend a midi hippo bag, bought one yesterday and managed to cart away a bootload of brambles in it and deposit them in the council green bin without any extra scratches :O) gave me a bit of hope that i may be able to get rid of my mountain of prickliness.. :O) no way i could bonfire or compost the whole lot, built a bin out of pallet this morning and already pretty much full (mostly with nettles.. :O/ )

[Seahorse]

Aw, thanks Minty! Actually, when I had a rake around at the far end of the plot, I found THREE oil drums, plus a sort of tank thing (water tank maybe?) which I shall be using as burners.

I'm really enjoying cutting the brambles down and (famous last words!) it's not really that hard! You're absolutely right that it makes a whopping visual difference too!

Claire

[Seahorse]

Good to hear you're getting on so well Becca! No taking away for me though - no transport!

Claire

[Becca]

ahh yes, don't want to be strapping brambles to a bike or lugging them on the bus.. yes, feeling very encouraged, i've had the plot less than a week (and only put in one full day) and the end, whilst not in sight quite yet, at least seems acheivable

[craigpugh]

Good luck- you will do it!! My first 18 months on my huge plot was basically War on Brambles. We were slashing burning stacking hacking and cursing. We put down tarpaulin topped with carpet to weaken the bits that sprouted back up.

Then, my absolute TOP TIP... once you've chopped back, you have to get the roots out. We made it much much worse because we tried to dig em out, the brutes. What this meant was that where we dug the main knot of roots out, but left smaller bits behind, they have just given rise to the sequel 'War on Bramble 2: Son (and daughter) of Bramble". So, on the rest, rather than dig up the roots, i've done a very controversial thing and used glyophosphate (sp?) weedkiller (roundup type, but get wilko's own brand much cheaper).

The way i've used this has been laborious but has minimised the chemicals (the only time i use any at all on the plot) and has also absolutely nuked the DETESTABLE bramble. basically what i've done is:
- left the areas where I've chopped it back covered with carpet and tarpaulin, so the'yve sprouted a little bit with no light
-this weakens the roots (But the roots are all still one connected root system as I havent dug chopped or otherwise broken them)
- sprayed or paint-brushed the glophosphate onto the new shoots/ leaves leaving them exposed to the light for a week, then covering back up
- repeat this 2 or 3 times during the growing season. Resist the urge to dig at it, leave it as one whole root system. The glophosphate is drawn right down into the roots, including all the tiny little bits which would otherwise break away and become spearate plants.

The areas i originally dug over i'm foreveer weeding little new bramble sprouts, but the areas i covered over and used the above technique, are now totally bramble free.

You can of course use the same technique as above without the weedkiller. Letting the light in for a short while gets the plant into growing mode. Then, when you cover it again, it tries to grow but cant get any energy from the sun so just uses up its food supplies in its roots. The glophosphate, as far as i understand it, just speeds this pricess up- it over stimulates growth and 'exhausts' the plant, eventually killing it. I've found that some areas I've been able to leave covred for 3 years have totally died without weedkiller, whereas using a small painting/ spray of glyophosphate as described has cleared beds totally in one year.

Can you tell this became a major major obsession!!

Good luck, it's worth holding your nerve and playing the long game with the nasty stuff, it;'s worth it in the end.

[bubblewrap]

I suppose we are lucky as our council provides a skip as bonfires or not allowed. I "compost" as much as I can but I still have loads of rubbish to get rid of.Our council provides a skip on each of it's allotment sites.(two on the larger sites)We also have water "on tap" & all for £36(£18 cons) per year.
The council even put up a new security fence last year.

[Seahorse]

Thanks for that craigpugh. Definitely sounds like a good option.

Claire

[moggssue]

So, Seahorse - or anyone else - did you have a bonfire? Still got lots of brambles to get rid of?

[Seahorse]

I had an oil drum bonfire which was great fun. I was about 10 years old again, poking it with a big stick and grinning madly as flames shot everywhere

Plenty more brambles left for another day though

Claire

[seasprout]

I had an oil drum bonfire which was great fun. I was about 10 years old again, poking it with a big stick and grinning madly as flames shot everywhere

Plenty more brambles left for another day though

Claire

Sounds like you would make a good striker on a picket line.

[moggssue]

I love a good bonfire! Was fascinated on Saturday evening watching the flames dancing and jumping at the organised show at Windsor, it was really beautiful in its own way. Glad you've managed to get rid of at least some of your brambles by the way Claire!

[Seahorse]

I needn't have been so concerned about the antisocial aspects, I don't think! My fellow plot holders apppear to be a right bunch of pyromaniacs I counted seven bonfires on site this morning alone!

I would start burning more often but as I usually have my littlest boy with me, I really have to stay near the fire, rather than getting on with something else while keeping half an eye on it.

Claire