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Old 18-01-2012, 02:40 AM posted to rec.gardens
Farm1[_2_] Farm1[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jan 2012
Posts: 17
Default Brambles/nettles

"Sparx" wrote in message
...

Hello all, I am new to the forum and gardenening I have no knowledge in
gardening what-so-ever .... Basically me and the mrs have moved into our
new house but the gardens are terrible they was just full of 6ft high
brambles and stinging nettles I have cleared all the vegetation out so
now it's just a muddy mess we want to get a lawn laid down ... I was
just going to dig the big clumps of bramble roots out then rotovator it
and level it out then lay the turf but my father-in-law says if I just
chop it up with the rotovator the brambles will just come back


He's right.

so I've
started digging it over and taking all the roots out (Jesus you have
never seen so many roots it's just like a mat of roots) but when I told
my uncle he says that I should leave the new growth to come through then
use a weed killer like round up or something so the roots die so I don't
really know what to do


Roundup (glyphosate) isn't really strong enough to kill brambles - you need
something nastier so look for a herbicide that contains triclopyr or one of
the glyphosate+ mixes (that + is something that sounds like metsulphuron
methyl).

I really want the quickest way ... Well actually
the mrs wants the quickest way possible to get rid of them so we have
got a lawn in time for our daughters birthday party so what would you
guys suggest?


Ask the Mrs is she really wants to swamp your home environment with
weedkillers and if she does, has she done any reading on what they contain
and how they may or may not impact on young children, pregnant women and the
environment. I'm not saying don't use them, but before you go and do
anything, you need to know what you are using and how it may impact on your
family and how much enjoyment you will get long term from your garden.