Martin Brown wrote in
news
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


Not taking the p*ss here Martin but how do you get away with burning?

If I have my lighter too high for my ciggies I could be fined or worse.

Baz