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Unwanted Brambles


John
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We have grape vines down the length of our garden.  Unfortunately they are overgrown with blackberry brambles.  We cut them all back in August whilst we were there but although the grape vines are regrowing well, so are the brambles.  Does anyone have any suggestion on how to kill off the brambles without killing the grape vines?

Thanks

John and Karen

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You can by a gel containing the same weedkiller as is used in 'Roundup' - can't remember its chemical name - which you paint on to the leaves of the bramble. It's a bit tedious, but you don't have to do every leaf - just enough for it to get into the plant and kill it. Takes 2-3 weeks, and you might need to give it a second dose.

Malcolm

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  • 2 weeks later...
Many years ago I tackled my parents garden, overgrown with brambles and weeds six feet high.

Never cured the problem and it is bloody hard graft pulling them out by hand, digging over the garden a foot deep and trying to remove the bulbs by hand!!

Even if you covered the entire garden with polythene to starve the ******s of light they would find a way back. No amount of weedkiller would keep them away for good.

I really hope you get some better advice from more forum readers!

Maybe the weedkiller will work for you?

Good luck.
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Easter 2003, we tackled 2 patches about 150 sq m in total.

We pulled out, cut back and dug up the whole lot, despite most of it having grown through chicken wire fencing, which was also buried to a depth of about a foot in places

The brambles were then burned on a garden fire which burned for 6 days, the clearing having taken that long. The chicken wire had to be recovered, cooled and folded into manageable parcels before it went to the dechetterie.

They DO grow back, as  I guess you can NEVER get them all, but we are diligent at digging out/cutting off any we see, and seem to be getting on top of them.

Now, if I could ONLY see a way of getting shut of the nettles............

Alcazar

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i logged on with the intention of posting the very same question (except in our case the brambles cover about an acre and there isnt much worth saving growing inbetween them). Being a lazy child of the 70's now overly used to buying something online to solve most problems (unlike my Dad who would probably have dug them out by hand) I considered hiring a rotivator in the hope it might pull the things up. However, i think the previous owners of the house rented out the garden as a local landfill as the whole area is dense with buried rubbish from broken bottles to dog kennels and i think this would probably damage any kind of cutting tool.

I think i need to use some heavy duty weedkiller to kill the brambles so i can collect the buried rubbish however following this i wondered if there is a particularly hardy grass i could plant that might push them back and stop them returning to quite the same extent. Does anyone have any ideas on either bramble beating plants or dealing with these landfill like gardens (our last garden in France was in a similar state and so is my Fathers at his house here)

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Helen, if your brambles cover an area like that, I would just buy myself a pressure sprayer and a big container of 'Roundup', spray the lot and then maybe burn off the dried dead remains. I don't think that you will find any grass which is tough enough to compete with brambles and hold them back, though. Once you've cleared this lot away you need to be vigilant and ruthless in zapping any new ones!

Malcolm

(not much good at growing things, but great at killing them, according to my wife!)

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[quote]Helen, if your brambles cover an area like that, I would just buy myself a pressure sprayer and a big container of 'Roundup', spray the lot and then maybe burn off the dried dead remains. I don't thin...[/quote]

Roundup worked for me but check the strength of the active ingredient on the side of the packet (glycosphate or something like that) - ROundup comes in several strengths and you need the strongest to killl off the blighters!

A professional gardener also told me about some other stuff - sounded like "Garlon" which is stronger but kills absolutely everything and you can't replant for months after using.  Not much good for your vines, I know!

 

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<<<However, i think the previous owners of the house rented out the garden as a local landfill as the whole area is dense with buried rubbish from broken bottles to dog kennels and i think this would probably damage any kind of cutting tool. >>>

Yep, we had this as well, buried "treasure" including a bonnet from a Simca Aronde, several sides to fridges etc, a whole steel trailor chassis that took 3 to lift it, (the local farmer transported it to the dechetterie for us), two axles from another, hundreds of feet of chicken wire,and thousands and thousands of broken roof tiles!

Best of luck: wifey is STILL digging up roof tiles and using them to infill dips inthe path!

Alcazar

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If your priority is to keep the vines I would think that the only way is to cut the brambles down to ground level by hand every time they appear. Or pull up the whole lot and replant the vines. Then tackle the brambles. Reminds me of a friend whose wife asked him to weed the flower beds. He dug everything up, weeds and all, then replanted the flowers. She was none too pleased as the flowers never recovered. Another idea would be to ask advice from a local who grows vines. They may know of a product that would be safe to use. Pat.
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We were advised by a local farmer to use 'chlorate de soudre' (spelling probably somewhat awry).  Comes in a green and yellow tin, in powder form.  Mix it up in a sprayer and choose a calm day to use it.  Spray directly onto the brambles and it kills them off in a couple of weeks.  Mind you, they come back the next year and will kick the c**p out of you when you walk past, but hey, you can always make up some more.  Alternatively try napalm.

Regards, Steve.

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C de S stays in the soil and if it kills the brambles it won't do the vines any good, more likely to knock the brambles back for just a couple of years and damage the vine to boot.

I would hack off the brambles, dig them up where possible without damaging the vine and then cover the area with black plastic or a mulch, to be removed every so often and the brambles cut down/dug out again; they would be weakened by lack of light as well as being regularly cut back.

An organic mulch is only better if you are sure of attacking the brambles before they peek through otherwise you end up feeding them which is counterproductive.

I find sowing flowers or bulbs motivates me to keep the brambles or whatever back in places like this. If you keep them down they give up (pdq in a lawn or potager for example), if you forget them for a year or two you are back to square one.

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