La Puce wrote:
Holly, in France wrote:
....anything at all that will out-compete brambles and nettles?! I
have battled with a bank next to a stream for four years, trying to
dig them out and keep them cut. Now there are mice near a waterfall
(which I don't want to poison - cat and barn owls), coypu coming and
going, the dog has joined in the digging trying to get at the mice
and the whole thing is becoming more and more of a mess! I've just
cleaned it all up again as well as I can. Trying to keep
membrane/polythene in place would be a nightmare, the bank is steep
and the dog and various wildlife will root it up. So...either I
plant some very aggressive ground-cover or I think I'm going to have
to resort to Roundup for as long as necessary. Any ideas please
anyone? East facing bank, mostly sunny, never dries out, floods half
way up a couple of times a year.

Going at it, cutting them and digging them out will eventually kill
them off. It seems you've done this with no results.

The reason it hasn't worked is that I can't get all the roots out
because the bank is so steep and just falls apart, the topsoil falling
down the bank. Elsewhere it has worked, in smallish areas.

I am horrified to
read that you would result in using chemicals on the banks of a
stream, with owls, mice and other animals living near by.

I don't want to, hence having tried to do it manually first.

Why do you want to
get the nettles out? Doesn't this help the banks to stay put,
minimising erosion, contributing to the ecological habitat of all the
creetures around you?

Yes, it does, I agree completely. But I have literally acres of nettles,
brambles and excellent wildlife habitat, lots more banks of lakes,
streams and river which are left completely wild up and downstream of
here. This bit of bank is just alongside the house. The bit I would
prefer to look 'pretty', or at least not desperately untidy, is only
about 15m long and about 2m high. There is another smaller area of
'rockery' opposite it with which I am also fighting an ongoing losing
battle, but will continue with that because there are nice plants in
there too.

Now, if you were to dig it all out to plant a salix say, perhaps that
would very much stop the brambles and nettles - clear all that site
once and for all and you would end up with a very nice area.

Mmm. Yes, a few small weeping salix might be OK there and would probably
grow and fill out quickly enough for me to keep on top of the
undergrowth in the short term. But I don't think there are any short
enough. If they were too tall they would block the view of the lake, a
peninsula with nice shrubs and the flood plain across the river. Planted
half way up though, possibly, I'll think about that one.

--
Holly, in France
Gite to let in Dordogne, now with pool.
http://la-plaine.chez-alice.fr