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Help please bramble disaster

FfoxgloveFfoxglove Posts: 538
in Problem solving
So this year I cleared my parents garden which was overrun with shrubs and brambles. I used glyphosate to poison the brambles and pulled up or painted any coming through. 
I thought I was dealing with the last few determined culprits - usually a substantial thorny shoot sticking up - when I noticed these little seedlings coming through everywhere and I do mean everywhere … at least 6 per foot of the borders. 
I didn’t think they were bramble but on closer inspection they seem to be. 
I’m distraught and gutted! I don’t know how to tackle the problem! 
Please help - any advice would be appreciated. Feel like my work was for nothing 😥
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Posts

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    At that size, you can get rid of them by giving it a good fork over, removing roots as you go.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Dig it over ... pick out the weeds with their roots and bin them. 

    Rake  the soil over. 

    Wait. 

    More weed seeds will germinate so fork it over again, picking out the weeds and roots. Keep repeating through the growing season  

    Next spring repeat the forking over and weeding then rake it over and prepare to plant, but keep a sharp Dutch hoe at hand 

    One year’s seeds means seven years’ weeds 😠 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    You will never get a weed free bed unless it's sterile. One of my secret pleasures is hand weeding. I think it might even be Zen, but I'm not absolutely certain what that means.
    Your garden will never be like the ones on the telly.  When weeds emerge , pull them out. 
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • philippasmith2philippasmith2 Posts: 3,742
    If you have brambles in your garden, you will have bramble seedlings.  Spotting them and pulling out is an ongoing task much like Ash seedlings.
    If you can spot and catch them young enough, you can usually just pull out with root intact but they do like to hide ;)  
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    If you have brambles in your garden so will your neighbours. The local wildlife will be very helpful in spreading seeds from their brambles even if you eradicate all of yours. This gives you a lifetime's supply of fresh bramble seedlings. However as discussed above they are not too difficult to keep on top off, just regular gardening really.
  • FfoxgloveFfoxglove Posts: 538
    Hi all thank you so, so much for responding. 
    I’m pretty down in the dumps but I’m so grateful for a plan of attack! 
    I think it’s just the sheer number of seedlings I wasn’t prepared for. There’s 20m of beds to go through and it’s just packed of them!Thy are tiny though. 😶

    @fidgetbones and @Dovefromabove I know this is probably dense but how exactly do you Fork / dig a bed? I’m clearly not knowing what I’m doing! as proven by the shock at the brambles 😳 Sorry! Just want to be sure. 

    I need to improve the soil which is clay and drying out all the time so was going to put top soil down…
    shall I do this after the first bramble removal or after the second round @Dovefromabove? 

    @steephill you are probably right…however my own garden is a tiny courtyard so this is quite new! 🙄

    I used to dream of a large garden but now, contemplating this Herculean task, my parents suburban patch seems plenty!!! 
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    I use a border fork. Stick the fork in near to the bramble. Lever it up. Then sort of riddle the soil through the fork.(fluff it up) The stringy bits will then be on the top. pick them up and dispose.  I don't use a spade unless I am digging a hole. I use a fork to clear/dig over an area. My problem is bindweed roots.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I regularly find bramble seedlings in the garden even though I never let them flower, never mind seed. I think the birds bring them (they're usually near the base of a fence or under the hedge - perch and poop seems to be what birds do after they've been eating blackberries).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I'm really lazy and probably no one would agree with my method, but I cut them down to ground level, ignore them and snip them off when they reappear. They give up eventually.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ERICS MUMERICS MUM Posts: 627
    Coincidentally I’ve been quite intrepid today and gone into my very own bramble empire at the top end of my garden.  I took supplies -water, Kendal mint cake, mosquito repellent and a spare pair of undies just in case I got lost.

    ive just popped indoors to put dinner on, then I’ll go and bag up the harvested runners.  Wearing my trusty ‘Kevlar’ gauntlets of course, to protect my Lilly-white arms against the swines with spines, thugs with thorns.  I also discovered a rich seam of snails & slugs in the gloomy bramble underworld.
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