#66 Olde Time Method to Remove Brambles
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- Bramble weeds (prickers, hurry up and waits...) were blocking our path to the pond. I tried several methods and the only thing that works to permanently remove the brambles is rooted in the stone age.
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In the uk many bramble stems are too well rooted to pull by hand. I use a weed killer in a sponge applicator and I paint the leaves. It's slow work but I only put it exactly where it's needed, so I use very little.
Fantastic. We live in central France and have bought a house that sat empty for ages. the garden is nuts. we will uncover a lot of things Im sure! but never thought of the double gloves. will protect arms too. have wellington boots arriving next week (neighbour told us there are vipers...). It will keep us healthy too!
Hi Mellia! I now use welding gloves as they cover my forearms better. We have snakes, but I haven't seen any poisonous ones. I have A LOT of brambles to remove this year. It is a never ending battle to get rid of these wild black berries. Your new home sounds wonderful. Enjoy the hard labor to make it your own space. Good luck!
Two suggestions for you; 1/ get a motorised pole-mounted hedge trimmer. These make very short work of cutting the brambles up into a manageable state both up in The air and close to ground level.
You can then use an ordinary rake to roll the cut brambles up and get them onto a bonfire or into a big sack or something to get rid of them.
If you want to do it the proper way (by removing the plant with its root ball) the easiest by Far way to do this and indeed other stringy, difficult to pull out plants (eg docks) is to make a lever arrangement with a bit of 4x2 or similar about 5’ long with a couple of legs to act as a fulcrum a foot or so from the plant-end, wrap the stem around the short end of the lever and whilst holding onto the plant with one hand, lever the other end of the 2x4 down towards the ground pulling the plant’s rootball out.
Ideally a two person job as it’s quite difficult to lever and maintain tension on the plant at the same time but it is 10 times easier.
Hi Martin. Great ideas! I just purchased a Stihl Kombi power head and pole saw. I can get the hedge trimmer attachment as well for these pesky brambles. I currently leverage the root ball up by using a narrow blade shovel that works great. Still hard work but goes faster with the shovel. Thanks for the idea!
Doing this after a prolonged rainy spell will better insure the come out by the roots. In Pennsylvania the spring thaw is a super big help after a heavy snowfall winter.
Hi Howard! yes! I agree. All the brambles re-grew since the video and I need to go through and pull them out. I think I'll also use a normal long handled shovel to lift the roots a bit to help. I'm born and bred from Pa. Harrisburg more precisely. Take care and stay safe!
If you use a pitchfork, it might be easier to force the roots out of the ground instead of brute-forcing with your hands. The briars we have in our backyard here in New England are hard to pull out with just your bare hands.
Great idea! I think I'll try a shovel as well. The briars came back with a vengeance this summer. One of the hardest chores on the homestead for sure!
Mine aren't nearly this bad but after 2 days rain I just spent the better part of today pulling them out. Their root system is crazy. Still have a few along my fence line but they'll have to wait until the next rain. Good luck.
Thanks, mamasaidsew! Its a big job and probably never-ending!
At this point they are a lot of work due to the month you said you are doing this - July. If you want to do it more your way then doing it in spring is best before they have really grown and become hearty. Once it is July then using a brush cutter is usually the easiest and there are several more blades than you show like the triangle. Rol; the long brambles up with a rake and/or pitch fork, even placing in a wheelbarrow or pull behind cart and after a day of drying then burn them. When they do slightly regrow you can pull out in fall when it's been rainy and the ground is loose or take a tiller back there after a recut in fall with the brush cutter.
If you want to stop them you will need to grow something different in place of them. Test your soil to see what it needs and this can be anything from lime to wood ash to compost or a combo and add or till in before winter and depending on the seed you pick to grow back there some of us will seed in the fall with our compost so the seeds are kept in the compost over winter as long as it's not still "hot" compost and they sprout as soon as the snow melts and then the grass roots don't let other plants take hold and many times these brambles and other weeds take hold of places that do not have the best soil as you see the grass does not grow there. Healthy soil = ability to grow grass and not let weeds take hold.
I can't see the entirety of your place, but if it had large access we would just brush hog it with a small tractor and be done. A good brush hog would turn that into mulch. Scrape with a bucket to level things out and damage the roots, but make sure it was a nice slop in the yard and maybe use to add whatever additions the soil needs to have a ph for those not to grow. This would be my work smarter, not harder plan as many skid steers and compact tractors can be rented from local shops that rent out many types of tools. Advice from a lady farmer and yes I know those suck. I have them on the way to my pond too, just nowhere near the numbers you do.
Thanks for sharing. I think they are similar to our brambles / blackberry bushes in the UK 🇬🇧. I'm just clearing what is like a jungle (in a London Suburb) and resorted to the same technique even for little saplings as well.
Hi Luise Ellen! Good luck clearing your jungle. Mine has grown up again since the video and I'll need to do another "harvest" by hand in a few weeks. I'm sure it will take many years of constant sorrow/struggle! Best wishes to you from across the pond.
I enjoy your videos. Like hearing your assessment of what worked and what didn't, and why. Watching you pull them out though, got a little boring to watch. Maybe you could have speed that part up? Thanks for taking the time to make your videos.
Hey Terry K, great feedback! Thanks for watching.
That’s quite a job. You could cut them down first and then use a garden fork to dig out the roots. If you train some of them they’re good for juicy blackberries.
Yeah, it is a never ending battle here! Thanks for the tip! I'll try it!
You're doing a good clearance job but unless you pull out the whole root ball they will simply grow back!
Yeah, I now wait until a good rain and that helps with pulling out the whole root ball. It's an ongoing battle with this plant. Thanks for watching!
Goats 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻And a broadfork is the best for loosening the crowns
I can’t argue with that!
Big coat on loppers go in sideways cut to base then pick to dig up root balls and plant brassicas because slugs n snails never went in before and to my experience don’t come back also I’ve been experimenting with nettles around my plants seems to work
Thanks for the advice!
Put some Gallup xl on them, not saying it will get rid but it will sure kill em for a good 12 months
Hi Terry! I try not to use any herbicides around the house I take the grass clippings and use for compost for the garden. I'll keep that in mind, though for areas that I don't harvest grass clippings nearby.
If you saw my bramble problem you'd be thinking along the line of an upside down helicopter.
Check out my most recent battle, took 4+ days of pulling and burning
Those brambles look different to the ones in the UK, are there different species of brambles in the USA?
I call them brambles but they really are black berry canes.
@homesteadpilgrim Ah, people in the UK call them brambles, but then Marge Simpson also called them brambles in an episode of The Simpsons.
I can't see the thorns on these brambles in this video and the leaves look different to the usual ones.
The thorns are sharp and mean. I wear two sets of gloves, work gloves and then welding gloves on top. I'm able to now keep up with the removal but have to keep at it regularly. They will never go away. I may plant some low growing ground cover like blue rug juniper to choke out the canes
I'd like to remove an entire section of brambles and put in rasberry bushes. Do I need to dig out those nasty long roots out so that they never come up again?
I would say yes. I am already getting new growth of the brambles and I will need to go through by by hand again and rip the new growth out soon. Its a tough job for sure! Hopefully they will diminish each time I rip them out and then I need to plant a good ground cover that will prevent their re-establishing! Thanks for watching.
@@homesteadpilgrim You need to fork out the roots as any little bits left will re-grow. I know from bitter esperience!
Staying active is good but it sounded like you might be putting a strain on your heart, is there a reason your against spraying something like Gordon's Brush Killer and then using your wacker to cut them down. Thanks for sharing.
I know, I do sound winded. I am sensitive to how I feel as I do have heart disease in my fraternal line. Chemicals are not in my tool box... Thanks for watching.
I have them in my garden.horrible things
I’m still battling but is getting better as I continue to pull them by the roots