What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Lu

like all plants: if you keep on taking the upper part (leaves, stem, shoots
etc), the roots will eventually die, no matter how immovable they seem to
be. with brambles the 'eventually' can seem like along time - but it will
happen.

as an aside: i like to keep a few (well-watched!) brambles in the garden,
for their fruits, for the cover they provide for feeders like frogs, newts
etc ... and (some will hate me for this) for food for young rabbits - they
like to chew the new tips of bramble.

....
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Lu

I know how you feel, I have just spent a couple of painful days trying
to clear a bramble hedge - are your tetanus jabs up to date? - I dig the
b. things out but never seem to win . Will be interested to see how
others manage

kate

"Lu" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Lu


Keep chopping the tops off. I had nearly half an acre of those plus other
weeds. Went over them a few times with a rotoscythe until just grass came up
and eventually put horses to graze, so it is possible.

Mike

On 30/8/04 9:24 pm, in article , "Lu"
wrote:

What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Lu


Put on some very heavy duty rubber gardening gloves. Dip your thus
protected hands into weed killer, smear it onto the brambles. Repeat as
necessary.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

"Lu" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! )
weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and
bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them
stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to
death!

Spray or sprinkle glyphosate on the leaves, but protect the desired
plants from contact with it.
You will have to repeat two or three times at fortnightly intervals.

Franz

"Lu" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Lu

Glyphosphate brushed onto the leaves will do it, but you will need to repeat
the treatment a couple of times.
DONT use a glyphosphate spray. Even on seemingly windless days it still
manages to migrate and burn or kill plants you want to retain.

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 22:02:39 +0100, atwifa wrote:

like all plants: if you keep on taking the upper part (leaves, stem,
shoots
etc), the roots will eventually die, no matter how immovable they seem to
be. with brambles the 'eventually' can seem like along time - but it
will
happen.

This is all very well if you have brambles in the middle of a large plot,
but if the roots are travelling from outside your property then it is
doomed to failure as they will just keep coming. In this case you will
have to use the glyphosate method.

Sammi

"Sue da Nimm" . wrote in message ...
"Lu" wrote in message
...
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Lu

Glyphosphate brushed onto the leaves will do it, but you will need to repeat
the treatment a couple of times.
DONT use a glyphosphate spray. Even on seemingly windless days it still
manages to migrate and burn or kill plants you want to retain.

And, of course, cut them off as low as you can get, wait for new
leaves to shoot, and treat those, not the whole long canes. I have
also cut off undiggable ones low down, and painted the stumps with SBK
using a little water-colour brush (you have to destroy the brush
afterwards, so a packet of cheapies from the market or quid shop is
best).

Mike.

"Lu" wrote in message ...
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Like other people have said, it's basic stuff: keep removing the tops
until the roots have exhausted thier food store, or use a
translocating contact weedkiller. Or both. Allow at least a
fortnight after treatment before cutting. But it is not simple.

I'd burn the trimmings: they will root from tiny parts, and although
they should compost well, if your heap does not get hot then you might
re-introduce them.

But they will have seeded the ground, or at least the birds will, so
you should keep hoeing or pulling up seedlings for the first N years,
where N may be around 7.

"Lu" wrote in message ...
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

Like other people have said, it's basic stuff: keep removing the tops
until the roots have exhausted thier food store, or use a
translocating contact weedkiller. Or both. Allow at least a
fortnight after treatment before cutting. But it is not simple.

I'd burn the trimmings: they will root from tiny parts, and although
they should compost well, if your heap does not get hot then you might
re-introduce them.

But they will have seeded the ground, or at least the birds will, so
you should keep hoeing or pulling up seedlings for the first N years,
where N may be around 7.

This is all very well if you have brambles in the middle of a large plot,
but if the roots are travelling from outside your property then it is
doomed to failure as they will just keep coming. In this case you will
have to use the glyphosate method.

i can see the logic of what you say. but using the herbicide also has its
drawbacks, not least of which is that it cannot prevent the spread of the
plant by other means (seeds etc). over the time i've been gardening i've
become philosophical ... i suppose that should read 'been forced by Nature
into becoming philosophical' ;-) ... and i've pretty much given up on the
'fix it now and fix it permanently' approach.


Sammi

In message , Lu
writes
What is the best way to get rid of these damned (and painful! ) weeds? We
keep finding new ones that are growing among well established and bushy
plants, so digging them up is impossible - and the roots on them stop us
pulling them out.........help please - before I get prickled to death!

You need some thicker gardening gloves for a start. I go after them in
the shrubby borders with a long handled fork and brute force. Never
leave any bits on growing in the sunlight. If you can do nothing else
lop them off at ground level and hoe out all seedlings weekly.

At this time of year you may as well harvest the brambles. I let mine
grow wild on one fence as natural barbed wire and have planted a couple
of thornless cultivars on another.

Clearing more open overgrown ground of brambles is easier with a
combination of glyphosate followed by fire a few weeks later when the
scrub is all tinder dry.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown