Best way to kill brambles

[FionaH]

while you're at it, I've got a greenhouse needs building

hmmmm you had better ask MrH about my greenhouse building talents first, we damn near got divorced putting mine up

[Incy]

You can come and slash and burn here too Fi. We'll keep you well fed and watered!

[enrich100]

At the lottie the ones round the edges get trained along the fence or through the hedges. Helps keep out intruders with the added bonus of blackberries.

this shows that a weed to one is just a plant in the wrong place to another

[maypril]

The best trick at this time of year is to hack them down to ground level. If you can get your hands on a proper strimmer (one with blades, not a wire grass strimmer) then use it.

If you don't have a strimmer, just go at it with shears. Start at the top and hack down to the ground.

Then dig out the roots with a fork, as much as you can. get the fork underneath the crown and lever it out.

When spring comes, some shoots will emerge. When they do, paint the leaves with undiluted glyphosate (Roundup). That'll kill the shoot. Keep on top of this for a year or two and you should be done.

[newbieveggie]

Oh I do sympathise, hubbie and I have spent the best part of seven years digging up brambles, sloes, hawthorns etc. This time of the year I think is best just so long as the ground isnt frozen. The earth is nice and soft from all the rain and you can pull them up rather well, but be prepared to while away the evening with a pin in hand gouging out thorns. I wore the thickest gloves I could and still I got thorns. Also beware of sloes, I was stabbed by one in my finger joint and it swelled up twice its normal size and took months to go back to relative normality, plus had a hefty dose of antibiotics from the doc's.

Weed killers...nah I wouldnt bother personally, they never seemed to work and any that possibly could I wouldn't want to use in my garden.

Happy digging.

[flighty1]

I had about 1/3 rd of one plot covered in brambles so sprayed them with SBK brushwood killer. Six weeks later I cut back all the dead branches & dug out the old dead roots. Unfortunately there are two stubbon roots which refused to die so I got my son to put up a few posts & straining wires & when they grow this spring I will tie them in. I'm glad he put the wires up as I brought some cheap apple trees from Aldi yesterday so I am going to try & grow them as cordons.

[FionaH]

Thanks all, I have passed on all your suggestions

[BUFFS]

my sister had a great problem with brambles and after cutting them down to the ground,she borrowed 4 piglets from down her road,they were there for a week or so and grubbed out all the plants and she then had a fertilised plot,pigkeeper was delighted as he did not have to feed them for a week..:

[norfy]

Not that easy

It seems that all contributors on here have got what I can only call 'free range' brambles. Mine are more subtle. They are growing up through a very old hawthorn hedge; even where it is around 8 feet high they emerge from the top and sides and leave their mark on arms or face as you walk by. Trim them off and they are back in a few days. No chance of 'slash and burn' and no hope of getting at the roots without serious hawthorn injuries. Should I just leave them to the next generation?

[Two_Sheds]

Trim them off and they are back in a few days.

Those are the kind that grow alongside cycle paths *tuts*


I carry secateurs on my bike rides, and prune the brambles to a backward facing bud, so that future growth grows into the bush, not onto the path

[Lando]

I have been a war with a patch for a few years. I have had to learn to live with them, "train" them and enjoy their blackberries in my smoothie (its stops the seeds getting into the soil)