Some of my local trails have suddenly got overgrown by ferns and I feel like doing a spot of gardening.  Can anyone recommend a good tool for cutting back stuff like ferns that is fairly cheap but also folds up enough to fit in a typical backpack?

Yes, I could find a big stick and use that, but I’m wondering if there’s anything better suited out there.

Forgot to say: pretty sure I know what I want but I can’t recall the name of it!  Long knife thing with a curved end.

Brush hook!

Can anyone recommend a portable one?

Fiskars is decent as long as you keep it sharp. But it’s still pretty awkward for clearing a lot of trail

The XA3 looks short enough to just fit in a bag…

Depending on the stuff you’re cutting, and how much you’ve got to do, you might find secateurs to be just as quick.

Way less manly, obviously, but less tiring than swinging a big blade, easier to carry, and probably a tidier job, too.

XA3 fits inside my osprey pack, with the handle sticking out a wee bit. The stuff I clear is not much of a pedal to get to though, and the XA3 is awesome for clearing head height branches through forestry trails too.

Ferns/bracken with secateurs? I’d be there for days man!

For bracken, just bend it in half, but leave the top attached. That means the plant still thinks the shoot is alive, so will waste energy as it tries to keep growing.

If you chop the top off, it will just send up another shoot.

For bracken, just bend it in half, but leave the top attached. That means the plant still thinks the shoot is alive, so will waste energy as it tries to keep growing.

this – and for nettles too.

Aim to just bend stuff back rather than cut it off. This is a local path I did recently – the nettles were touching in the middle before I started, I just used a stick to push it flat then stamped on the base of the stems to keep them flat without the plant reacting as if they’d gone.

Maybe a bit late for bracken. It’s a rhizome and has an extensive underground root system – what we see aren’t individual plants but multiple shoots from one root system.

In spring the plant uses the energy it has previously stored to push up shoots to get more energy so that it can grow. This process stops when the last fronds have uncurled so if you cut the bracken at this point it’s used up all its stored energy but hasn’t yet started to rebuild its reserves so you deplete it. The plant then sends up more shoots in an attempt to capture more energy. This time you leave it until autumn – when the first signs of the fronds dying and turning brown appear then you cut it again. This cut stops the plant reusing the energy it’s used in creating the shoots.

A couple of years of this and the bracken will be severely depleted and it becomes a case of dealing with very small (< 30cm tall) fronds. On the farm we used to feed the cattle on these areas, their hooves would break the fronds further weakening the plant. The whole process from complete ground cover with the bracken at head height to no bracken would take about four to five years.

Chillington grass slasher If you want to cut things back

Personally having manually cut back 100m of trails previously, with a hand scythe and brush hook, it was tedious & didn’t work that well. I’m seriously considering buying a professional (not home) battery hedge cutter!

The other advantage of the ‘bash it flat’ method is you don’t need to walk round in public with what most people would consider an offensive weapon.

The other advantage of the ‘bash it flat’ method is you don’t need to walk round in public with what most people would consider an offensive weapon.

This. I have an xa3 and think it excellent. However, I do wonder what would happen if found wielding in a public space. I can pick it up without thinking of Hotel Rwanda.

I carry a saw for individual branches, but if there’s alot of, say bracken or hedge to do, I make a mental note and go back tooled up.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/7590087?storeID=65&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59156|acid:444-797-0832|cid:596650041|agid:28594643125|tid:aud-144400486596:pla-406974923707|crid:95889911485|nw:g|rnd:10103571165697063885|dvc:m|adp:1o11|mt:|loc:9045654&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpcH9mavn2wIVj-NkCh3otAs2EAQYCyABEgIJUvD_BwE

The clearance you can acheivment one of this is by far the best bang for your time.  Having the adjustable head and pole means you can cut at ground level or above your head

FFS. Sorry about that link. I tried to correct it, but the forum is just too much of a spaz today.

Napalm drone.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/7590087

That really is tooling up!

Thanks Ross.

It really comes into its own if you’ve got alot to do. plus, I use it in the garden anyway.