Brambles, moles and fosse septiques

[Carole]

I have an enormous number of brambles in my garden, how on earth do I get rid of them?

I am having a fosse septique installed in a couple of weeks. When everything is dug up, will it mean that the moles will leave my garden? I dont want to harm them but I have to be honest and say they do make a bit of a mess.

[londoneye]

Carole, there are previous posts on brambles with lots of good suggestions.     I tried initially cutting my bramble forest at the stems, as this is 'meant' to stem new growth and eventually the roots will (supposedly) die back.   Needless to say mine didn't so I then resorted to weed killer with some success, but hardly 100%.   Best way has got to be pull them up, but as I say there is definitely other posts on this one, so do check, as I can't recall details.

Ditto moles, oh god are there plenty of posts about moles  and they will give you just about every option available, from the frankly barbaric (in my humble opinion) to the good ideas that probably don't work very well !!!!     We had a fosse put in, and I have to say we have had no moles in that particular area, which may or may not be coincidence.   However, doesn't really matter cos they have just all moved over a few hundred feet to another area.   

Good luck

[trumpet]

Brambles. They always have the last word. They will stick you when you think you have just got the better of them. I have kept some in strategic places as they provide homes for all sorts of wildlife. The rest I have constantly mowed over for the past 6 years. Nice grassy bits now. They do go. I am talking an acre's worth here. You will not disturb the mole too much and like London says there are some great topics on them. Amusing too

[Framboise]

If you think moles leave a mess, just wait til you see the giant ruts and excavator tracks the fosse installation leaves behind.  Ours was done 18 months ago and those tracks are now concrete hard ridges about 18 inches high so first job with our little Kubota will be to try to flatten them out.

As for brambles, well the only way to be finally rid is to wrench 'em out by hand.  Sorry!!

[Loiseau]

Here is my two penn'orth, as offered in an earlier thread on the subject:

QUOTE:
To return to the "prickly" question - as I am undisputed queen of brambles in the Vendee....  [:)]

They spread by "leapfrogging" - i.e. sending out long shoots that bend down till they brush the ground and then take root. So they advance by leaps and bounds. When newly rooted like this, they are quite easy to pull out if the ground is soft.

I have always tackled vast swathes of brambles by secateurs.  It's much quicker than weedkiller!  It is essential to wear tough clothing though.  Waxed thornproof  jacket, jeans, wellies, good leather gardening gloves.  Maybe even a hat (it's painful when a particularly vicious bramble gets you in the head!).  So you may not want to tackle this job in hot weather.

 If you snip a stem as low down as you can reach, and then haul that stem away from the mass, you often find a rewardingly large amount of side shoots will follow it. Go on and on doing this and you will be surprised how quickly you clear the area.  (Cut the remaining stems down to ground-level once they are accessible.)  It would them be easy to treat tender new shoots as they emerge. I recommend concentrating your gaze on a manageable-sized patch rather than looking at the depressing size of the whole!   I drag the cuttings to a suitable place for a bonfire (but in France cannot actually set fire to it till about November).  Once you get a bonfire going, the stems burn like crazy.  I snip them up a bit, as I use an incinerator; it consumes a mountain of them really quickly if I stand over it and keep feeding it.

END QUOTE

Good luck with them!

Angela

 

[whitey]

loiseau,

just read your brambles reply and although i don't have any problems with these in the garden i was interested in your comment about bonfires, and not being able to light them until november. is this true of france as a whole? i was unaware if this "rule" and would be interested in knowing a little more if you or anyone has any further information on this.

thanks. mel.

[trumpet]

Good bramble info loiseau.

 I thought it was October?