On 11/10/2010 10:23, AL_n wrote:
I have a friend with a yard that has become very heavily overgrown with
brambles and ivy. I have this idea of clearing it for him within the next
couple of weeks. My idea is to shred the brambles and ivy, and then spread
the resulting chippings over my own back garden which has rather poor soil.
Due to the volume of material, it would probably give me a surface coating
2 or 3 " deep. I'm guessing that this would rot down over the course of the
winter and improve my soil.

My main question is: Is this likely to result in problems for me in the
form of brambles and ivy springing up all over my garden in the future?

If you stack it in heaps about 2m on a side and keep damp then it won't
matter too much - the stuff will quickly heat up internally and rot
down. I would not spread the stuff around without first composting it.
Both ivy and bramble will regrow from fairly small pieces.

Are you sure you want to move this sort of bulk material around? Might
be a lot easier to compost it in situ (or burn) and take the ash as
fertiliser. Clearing bramble, nettle, ivy scrubland I tend to favour a
hit of glyphosate followed a few weeks later by torching it when tinder
dry (putting in appropriate fire breaks). Ivy being so waxy survives
glyphosate but it doesn't last long in a fire.

Regards,
Martin Brown