Sorry to keep asking questions but have another one. The garden is bordered
by a natural hedgerow, mainly hawthorn but beginning to be taken over by
brambles. How should I prune it/cut it so as to minimise the brambles? If I
just cut with a hedgetrimmer will I end up with just bramble eventually or
will the hawthorn survive (I have small children so want to avoid the great
trailing whippy bits of bramble.) TIA
Hayley

On 13/7/05 22:46, in article , "H
Ryder" wrote:

Sorry to keep asking questions but have another one. The garden is bordered
by a natural hedgerow, mainly hawthorn but beginning to be taken over by
brambles. How should I prune it/cut it so as to minimise the brambles? If I
just cut with a hedgetrimmer will I end up with just bramble eventually or
will the hawthorn survive (I have small children so want to avoid the great
trailing whippy bits of bramble.) TIA
Hayley


You could treat the brambles as you do the Convolvulus. Being very careful
not to touch the wanted plants, brush, spray or shove into a bag filled with
spray (then tightly bound at the neck) the bramble whippy bits and leave
alone. You may have to do this again next year but whatever you do, don't
let the whippy bits touch the ground, because they will root and bring more
plants for next year. (My husband mixes the weedkiller with a bit of
wallpaper paste which makes the mixture thick enough to adhere to leaves and
not drift or drop onto other more desirable plants!)
When waging war on Convolvulus this year I wore rubber gloves and sprayed
the tiniest touch of weed killer onto the fingers and rubbed it onto the
leaves of the weed. This does indeed work and minimises spray drift.
Unhappily, while wearing those glove, I very briefly and slightly touched
another plant to move it out of the way of me clambering through the flower
bed. I hope it will survive.......... The lesson is - be incredibly,
more-than-you-can-imagine careful with sprays.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

In article , H Ryder
writes
Sorry to keep asking questions but have another one. The garden is bordered
by a natural hedgerow, mainly hawthorn but beginning to be taken over by
brambles. How should I prune it/cut it so as to minimise the brambles? If I
just cut with a hedgetrimmer will I end up with just bramble eventually or
will the hawthorn survive (I have small children so want to avoid the great
trailing whippy bits of bramble.) TIA

No, the hawthorn will survive. If you also keep cutting back any bramble
stems that emerge from the hedge, you'll upset the bramble more than you
upset the hawthorn.

If you can get in at the bottom of the hedge, repeatedly cutting the
bramble off at the base will get rid of it eventually.

I wouldn't worry too much about the children certainly once they get to
be about 3 or 4 - in the long run they'll be a lot better off if they
learn early that some plants can bite.

But what you'll need to be careful about is gathering and disposing of
all your hawthorn trimmings - they really are vicious.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

H Ryder wrote:

Sorry to keep asking questions but have another one. The garden is bordered
by a natural hedgerow, mainly hawthorn but beginning to be taken over by
brambles. How should I prune it/cut it so as to minimise the brambles? If I
just cut with a hedgetrimmer will I end up with just bramble eventually or
will the hawthorn survive (I have small children so want to avoid the great
trailing whippy bits of bramble.) TIA

I'd keep the bramble in the hedgerow, honeysuckle and rosa rugosa too.
That way you get your own free supply of brambles when in season. Just
slice them off when they stick out too far to be comfortable.

I doubt you can ever eliminate brambles, you get new plants from seed
all the time from bird droppings (same with edlerberry).

I doubt there is anything you could do with a domestic hedgetrimmer that
would do more than mildly discourage an established wild hawthorns
hedge. You are more likely to burn out the hedgetrimmer if you try too
hard on old wood. Have you sen the industrial strength flails that
farmers use to cut it by the mile?

Regards,
Martin Brown

"Kay" wrote in message
...
But what you'll need to be careful about is gathering and disposing of
all your hawthorn trimmings - they really are vicious.

God yes. Has anyone else noticed that if you get a wee poke by a hawthorn
thorn it *always* gets infected and very painful? I hate it.

The message
from "pammyT" fenlandfowl @talktalk.net contains these words:

"Kay" wrote in message
...
But what you'll need to be careful about is gathering and disposing of
all your hawthorn trimmings - they really are vicious.

God yes. Has anyone else noticed that if you get a wee poke by a hawthorn
thorn it *always* gets infected and very painful?

Yes; I've got one atm. Funny how other thorn-pokes don't seem to be as bad.

Janet

The message
from "pammyT" fenlandfowl @talktalk.net contains these words:
"Kay" wrote in message
...
But what you'll need to be careful about is gathering and disposing of
all your hawthorn trimmings - they really are vicious.

God yes. Has anyone else noticed that if you get a wee poke by a hawthorn
thorn it *always* gets infected and very painful? I hate it.

No, but you can say that of blackthorn.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Janet Baraclough writes
The message
from "pammyT" fenlandfowl @talktalk.net contains these words:

"Kay" wrote in message
...
But what you'll need to be careful about is gathering and disposing of
all your hawthorn trimmings - they really are vicious.

God yes. Has anyone else noticed that if you get a wee poke by a hawthorn
thorn it *always* gets infected and very painful?

Yes; I've got one atm. Funny how other thorn-pokes don't seem to be as bad.

I'll see your hawthorn, and raise you a gooseberry thorn?

Wondered what I'd done to the ends of my fingers - really lumpy painful.
But add in blackthorn too, I think they are all pretty bad :-(
--
David