Getting rid of rampant bramble bushes

dondo

Hi there

The new gaff that we have moved into has an unbelievable amount of bramble bushes in the back garden which we want to get rid of

Now I have heard that they are a difficult thing to get rid of permanently and was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations/tips

Cheers

D

BlondeHeadOn

Move house again !!! Only joking......

Are the brambles just in your garden, or are they coming in from another garden or ground outside of your boundary? And are they covering plants you want to keep, or just all over the ground and you can nuke the lot of them? If the latter then you can use weedkiller, but if they are mixed up with other plants then you need to be more selective.

We have a lot of brambles coming through into our garden through a fence - we live next to a patch of wild ground which is covered with nettles and brambles. Because of this it is a yearly battle to cut the brambles back, but we can't risk weedkilling them because of our other plants.

On the plus side, I find it very therapeutic to don some tough gardening gloves and rip out the brambles every few weeks. And we do pick a nice lot of blackberries every year to freeze and put in pies/jams etc. ....

Coveredinbees!!!!

I get stinging nettle through from a strip of no mans land at the end of my garden. I go over the fence once a year and weed kill the lot, if I were you blondie thats what I would do. What sort of waste ground is it you could expand your garden on to it then after a certain amount of time it's yours!!

BlondeHeadOn

From Coveredinbees!!!!: "What sort of waste ground is it you could expand your garden on to it then after a certain amount of time it's yours!!"

Er.. I don't think that would work, as the land is next to a railway line and I think Network Rail might get a bit upset if we start nicking their land! We do nip over the fence and pull the weeds back every now and then though - strictly trespassing, but if no-one sees..... There's not much else we can do about it though - it would cost a fortune to weedkill the lot as it is a very long boundary, and like I say we'd be trespassing.

We do get a wonderful assortment of butterflies and wildlife though, so it's not all bad - and I do like apple and blackberry pie!

dondo

BlondeHeadOn wrote:

Move house again !!! Only joking......

Are the brambles just in your garden, or are they coming in from another garden or ground outside of your boundary? And are they covering plants you want to keep, or just all over the ground and you can nuke the lot of them? If the latter then you can use weedkiller, but if they are mixed up with other plants then you need to be more selective.

We have a lot of brambles coming through into our garden through a fence - we live next to a patch of wild ground which is covered with nettles and brambles. Because of this it is a yearly battle to cut the brambles back, but we can't risk weedkilling them because of our other plants.

On the plus side, I find it very therapeutic to don some tough gardening gloves and rip out the brambles every few weeks. And we do pick a nice lot of blackberries every year to freeze and put in pies/jams etc. ....

The brambles are in our garden, planted by the previous owner who evidently liked them!!

We are not that bothered about any other plants in the vicinity- just want to get rid of the brambles!!

BlondeHeadOn

There's no accounting for what some people plant in their gardens, is there? Okay, if you just want to nuke them this makes things easier. For brambles etc. try one of the following:

"Deep Root® Tree Stump and Weed Killer"
'Growing Success Bramble Killer' - not tried, but supposed to developed specially for brambles
Or - one I have tried and believe me it kills stuff stone dead! - "SBK Brushwood Killer"

Or for the organic (and money-saving) answer:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/faqs.php?id=76
- basically forget about expensive chemicals and dig like mad!

Good luck with your new bramble-free garden!

Wig

You can use 360g/litre glyphosate dilute it in the correct proportion into a 5 litre spayer and spray at the beginning of summer after 2 weeks of no rain, repeat if necessary after 6 - 8 weeks, and then wait until next year to see what life is left in them. I did some brambles this way & the next year they did not come back........but they do die slowly after being treated so it's not really until next year that you can get a good idea of how effective it has been.

Coveredinbees!!!!

BlondeHeadOn wrote:

Er.. I don't think that would work, as the land is next to a railway line and I think Network Rail might get a bit upset if we start nicking their land!

You don't fancy your own garden railway then:rotfl:

Lord_Gardener

Just cut them down then dig them out - roots are shallow!

dondo

Thanks everyone for all your tips- shall give some of them a go and report back!!