Nettles and blackberries, not for me!!!!

[paul1972]

Need some good advise,
I have a garden which I have not maintained since buying the property 3 years ago due to total refurb of house. (common excuse but true)
Garden measures some 50m x 20m.
Was looking reasonable until beginning of summer, I used weedol on much of the garden and the nettles all died. (or so I thought!)
The nettles are everywhere now and the cost of of using weedol is huge given the area, and they only appear to kill the tops. when attempting to dig up nettles the ground is a mass of roots and I would never finish it before needing to start again.

Now then the blackberry problem is big, the bases of the shoots at ground level measure upto 2in thick. they also shoot back into the ground and resurface else where in the garden. There appears to be a shoot at least every 2 sq mtrs of garden.

The crunch is that much the garden used to be a padock for years, and the base of half of it appears to be crushed stone,sand,light soil all over a type of hessian. digging into it is neigh on impossible.

Also as a further problem the previous owner planted perrywinkle, This is very strong and super invaisive and needs to go too.

 

[nstreet]

There's only one real way of getting rid of a bramble problem and thats digging, lots of it and remove all of the roots. You'll be surprised how deep and how far they run.

 

[Thermo]

You can use a systemic weedkiller specifically for nettles and brambles etc. Its used quite a lot in the equine world and is much better than the diluted crap you get in the diy sheds. Youll be looking about £50-60 for a 5 litre container that will be more than sufficent to deal with it.

 

[paul1972]

does anyone know the name of it please?
Sounds good to me.
Thanks

 

[Kes]

Hi,

SBK Brushwood Killer. It contains 2-4-D or whatever it's called, but if it can defoliate Vietnam it'll clear your brambles.

Buy it in at least a litre bottle for economy. I can't remember the dilution rate, it's about 10 ml per litre I think. I use a large hozelock sprayer, and a face mask. Just give a general sprayover for a start, then in a few days do the bits you've missed. It will kill nettles and brambles, but for established plants you will need to keep at it for some time. You can contain the plants with twice-yearly sprayings. Frequent light sprayings (on windless days) are better than a wasteful drenching.

The woody bramble stems will need to be cut and dug out, they don't go too deep into the soil.

It won't kill grass, but will kill most broad-leafed plants so you might have to spray carefully, depending on what you want to keep.

Rgds.

 

[Thermo]

http://www.boothman33.freeserve.co.uk/page35.html

i use the above, the garlon at the bottom of the page should do the trick. READ all the instructions before you use it and comply with them. Its the commercial grade not the rubbish off the shelves

 

[Gary_M]

If you are not planning to plant anything for 6 months or more, then you could go over the area with sodium chloride - very cheap and kills everything !!

Otherwise, I would tend to go along with the 'dig them out' idea. As nstreet mentioned - you'd be surprised at how far the roots go I recently dug out some nettles in my garden - I was down about 1 metre and the roots must have spread about 3 or 4 metres

Good luck

 

[JohnD]

Sodium Chlorate

They normally say water it on, but I sprayed an overgrown garden, and it killed everything but the lilac trees. Spraying did not poison the soil.

Wash clothes hair and boots immediately after use as it makes them highly inflammable.

 

[Gary_M]

Sodium Chlorate

Oh yes - not sure if salt would have the same effect

They normally say water it on, but I sprayed an overgrown garden, and it killed everything but the lilac trees. Spraying did not poison the soil.

Good idea. I put mine on with a watering can and it killed the little lilac tree

Wash clothes hair and boots immediately after use as it makes them highly inflammable.