Brambles

[Suninfrance]

We have an area of woodland which we would like to clear of brambles. Short of a flame thrower, can anyone suggest a quick and painless (for us) way of getting rid of vast quantities of the stuff so we can make our woodland a pleasant area to walk and sit in. Having suffered lacerated flesh when we tried to clear a space last year, we'd be most grateful for any advice.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Jan

[Patf]

As far as I know there's no short-cut (pun not intended.)Eddie and friend got rid of most of ours by a combination of spraying with Roundup and cutting backwith friend's marvellous machine, then raking up and burning. There is a thread on this - "Killer blackberry attack" from tirvine on 17 Jan. 2004. Pat.

[Suninfrance]

Thank you everyone for your advice. We'll be buying vast quantities of round-up. Could be a long summer ..... .
This time, I'll try not to get "whiplash" :O)

Jan

[Weedon]

If you have a brushcutter/strimmer use the the metal wheel with the four blades, don't forget the goggles, and it zips through the stems, then you need a wife to drag it away and put it on the bonfire. If you use the secateur method try cutting the top and bottom off plastic empty litre water bottles then slip your hands through them that stops the b*****s attacking your arms. I don't personally like Roundup although it is not as viscious as some chemicals.

[Leshirondelles]

Forget the brushcutter and all that hard work. More difficult to get now but we asked a local garden centre and he recommended Garlon D12 by Fertiligene. It is truly amazing stuff, not only kills it off rapidly but because it stays in the plant when it attempts to grow again it dies off within days. Doesn't harm any other plants but beware it will kill blackberry bushes any anything of the same gender. The only place I could find it was at Mr. Bricolage.