Does any1 have any idea hw 2 get rid of 30yrs worth of roots

[jenko]

Over the past year i have become interested in gardening, i set up my own little buisness, developed a large vegatable patch in my farthers garden, bought a 12 by 6 greenhouse and now i have taken on an evan larger challenge.
Recently i have stumbled upon a large areo of ground behind my house on top of a rarther steep banking, the land could fit a 2 up 2 down house on it. it was once a large vegertable plot but was abandoned and several oil tanks were placed upon it, luckily the ground was not affected by this. but i have recently taken this over, and i am now turning it back to its former glory as a vegertable plot. but unluckly for me i now have to get rid of 30 years of roots and debris.
Does anyone know anything organic that can kill brambles? Or is it just a fork and pick afair for me?

[tim&fatima]

I think it's just good old fashioned, Elbow grease!
Have fun.

[MKG]

Not even sodium chlorate kills brambles (takes the tops off, but that's all). I did what you're doing a long time ago, and it really is down to dig the buggers out then dig 'em out again ... and again ...

Eventually, you and the brambles will reach agreement on a common boundary, as long as you don't turn your back. On the plus side, wild brambles produce by far the best blackberries.

[jenko]

well thanks anyway
i will be out there tomorow and see if i can get much done seens as its a bank holiday.

[Thurston Garden]

Goats followed by pigs would work!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Fire? I had a bramble patch that I used as a site for bonfires for a couple of seasons and that got rid of them, though I have to keep pulling up runners from next door.

Chemicals are not much use. I inherited a 5l plastic drum of paraquat when we bought this place. Horibble stuff, and quite rightly banned from sale in the EU (but try finding someone to take it off you!), but I couldn't quite resist treating a small patch of brambles in a distant corner with some. They died. Then three months later they grew back.

Brute force and persistence (in the absence of goats an pigs) do work in the end.

[jenko]

thanks alot
ive been told chickens work

[yugogypsy]

I agree with Thurston,

Goats followed by pigs, I myself used goats and then torched the patch and when it was all burnt Rick dug up the roots

Lois

[jenko]

i think i will just have to use good old fashioned elbow greese at the moment.
But i am considering getting some chickins and i would have thought that they would dig it over for me wilst adding plenty of manure

[JR]

Yes elbow grease, is the answer he says with very slippery elbows but with a feeling of a small amount of acheivement.


From this!



to this!!!

[hamster]

Wow!

[Thurston Garden]

Well done!

[JR]

Took the plot over in October (photo was taken in September). The only trouble although we dug out what we could, any seeds in the ground we obviously couldn’t and with lots of manure over winter we are working really hard to hoe out the small weeds coming back constantly. Does this get easier as the other plots don’t seem to have quite as many. I think it is normal as it was not cultivated for a few years?

[MKG]

Yep - perfectly normal. Eventually, you'll win. Just don't give up for a couple of weeks, 'cos they'll seed while your back's turned and then you'll have it all to do again.

[jenko]

wow well done

i suspect you were releved after finishing that