MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
We've just bought a fairly rural property and it's got a bit of steep, overgrown wood. We want to open it up and make it a bit more useable and less of a rampant mess of bramble and nettles, add a couple of wildlife ponds etc
I've been in an had a first pass with the strimmer and mulcher blade but the nettles and brambles are everywhere and chest high. I suspect they'll just keep coming back. I've no problem with a bit here and there but the whole wood is full so would like to tame it if possible.
I'm not keen on spraying but is that the only way to get rid of nettles and brambles in the long term?
Goats
Bought a bit of ground from our neighbour a few years back, was covered in brambles and mares tail, dug out the bramble roots which seems to have done the trick, only way I really managed to get rid of mares tail is by turfing it. Doesn't like competition, and cutting lawn has seen it off.
Best of luck, hard work and perseverance are your two main requirements.
Mulching blade on a decent strimmer.. great for clearing anything from a small tree to brambles etc..
Wear lots of protective gear though and careful how it effects your accent when using it..
We've got a small plot that sounds like it was in a similar state. We've been steadily digging them and clearing the roots. It's quite hard work but we've now got some large areas where they aren't coming back. They do come back from small bits of root so it often takes a second and third pass but eventually other stuff takes over.
+1 for goats
Our goat wouldn't eat brambles by choice. She might nibble at the newest growth if tied up so she couldn't reach anything else but she wouldn't go at the old stuff, and certainly not if there was anything else growing within reach.
Hire a flail mower or ride-on brush cutter. When the bramble and nettles start to grow back then dig/pull them out. Pulling out nettles is fun, if you get it right you can pull a whole line of them out attached to the same rhizome
Fire.
Fire, Burn it with fire
Blowtorch or steam on what's left after you've cut the tops off. Only way to get it all.
Napalm. Just napalm. Maybe followed by a big bottle of round up. You'll spend years removing it again and again and again. Life's too short.
Then look at soil nutrients etc as it may be overly nitrogen rich. Plant some stuff that absorbs loads of nitrogen, cut and remove arisings to compost.
Pigs are better I believe for this, used to be used by foresters for this purpose I think.
Slash it all, then cover with an old carpet or similar. That wont get rid of the brambles entirely but will get a lot. Dig up roots whenever possible. Nettles can grow from a tiny part of root or stem so try and get it all in a heap to rot/dry out rather than grow.
Goats don't really like brambles, and ours would only eat nettles once they had been cut down for a day or so.
Slash it all, then cover with an old carpet or similar. T
We have a big nettle patch that will one day need dealing with, a neighbouring farmer told me cut them back as far as possible and then stick a membrane or sileage wrapping over it and leave it for a year.
+1 for a pig.
Then eat pig when job is done.
Cows late autumn, they aren't fussy eaters, poach the ground breaking up roots and taste good. Making good progress in one of our woods.
We only spray where absolutely necessary to allow establishment of new planting.
What's the age structure and mix of your wood? How much canopy cover? Glades? Tracks?
I spent two years pulling up bramble and nettle roots in our garden, after a first few months of relentless strimming.
Scythe ?
Best done at night. preferably wearing a hooded robe.
Nuke from orbit, it’s the only way to be certain.
I’m actually quite shocked at how many STW forumites have goats.
Do you get them free with a woodburner somewhere?
Steep wooded area you say? Put up a sign saying "no mountain bikers, no trail building". That should have it cleared, with features added within a few months
If word is slow getting out then put up a few indignant posts on various MTB forums complaining about your access rights at this particular wood being denied.
If still no success, contact the nearest trail advocacy group and get them to organize a few clandestine dig days.
Nuke from orbit, it’s the only way to be certain.
It's the only way to be sure.
Pff, amateur.
Then look at soil nutrients etc as it may be overly nitrogen rich.
Nettles like Phophorous which is harder to reduce, best option is just keep cutting it regularly
I strimmed and sprayed my overgrown brambly mess of a garden but they still come back, had more success when being careful to pull/dig up the roots but miss a few and they come back so yeah without having some sort of animal there eating the shoots you'll probably just be looking at regular maintenance rather than actually getting rid of them long-term.
I’m actually quite shocked at how many STW forumites have goats.
Do you get them free with a woodburner somewhere?
It's the obvious next step for any middle-class STWists who were in on the 'raising chickens' fad a few years ago.
The next level is an orangutan you train to operate your gaggia...
I just attack the brambles with a hedge cutter.
We don't have one now. She actually came with the house, this was an old place a good few years back. I think the previous owner had her as a gardening tool but it clearly hadn't worked. Our current place gets the neighbouring sheep coming in. They don't touch brambles at all. In fact they've been coming into the property for years while the brambles steadily took over.
TBH we had been wondering if pigs would be the answer! Might be a project for next year - get a couple of porkers in for 6 months and get the ground properly turned over.
Hire a flail mower or ride-on brush cutter. When the bramble and nettles start to grow back then dig/pull them out.
This, my garden was 6ft tall mess of brambles, chopped it all down, the rotovated and picked out every piece of root I could find... it was long and tedious. We didn't have a flail mower (best tool for the job) but used a rake to lift up the bambles and hedge cutter to loop off the vines at the base.
You wouldn't believe it's the same garden, and I've not had to pull out any brambles since.
BB gun?
Wild campers?
In a previous property we inherited about 3/4 of an acre of nettles and brambles, i bought a second hand ride on mower and just kept cutting it down, grass eventually took over, looked great by the time we sold up.
Again a big old billy goat, but just be careful. My wife had one at home when she was a nipper and it escaped into the next doors garden and ate all the washing off the old lady’s washing line.
Pigs & goats means registration, etc....alpacas on the other hand although not so sure on their scrub clearing ability
Aren't alpacas bad-tempered mother-hubbards though, or am I misremembering?