I got into gardening by googling “how to permanently get rid of blackberries”. Turns out the answer is “shade”. I spent a summer working at a native nursery for beans. We moved and got 13 acres of forest. It had 2 (rough) acres out front that was swamped with himilayan blackberry, and I made a personal vow to overcome them.
I hired a foresty mulcher (awesome machine) to come and just… f**k s**t up. Bye bye blackberries. Hello rough terrain.
Then we planted 600 saplings over two years. We were making progress. Then my sprayer died and the blackberries came back this spring, so I am MANUALLY REMOVING THEM. Just me and a brush cutter, baby. 2 hours every day. Searching for my little baby trees and volunteer natives while I slay this 2 acre beast.
I’ve found a bunch of natives doing their best but today I found this little duckfoot flower, by sheer luck. Just one little plant, trying so hard to do its thing. I’m 1/4 acre down over my 2 acres of insanity and this little patch of leaves gave me so much hope. Just wanted to share.
by SpecificSkunk
2 Comments
good job… thanks for sharing 😊
Awesome work! I’m finally taking on the overgrown bramble patch in the back corner of my suburban backyard. We live on a steep slope, and that section is a rocky drop off that was treacherous to access to begin with. Part of why it got overgrown in the first place.
We hired some landscapers to cut it down to the ground then put a tarp over it to smother/solarize it. Hopefully in a couple years, all the blackberries and ivy will be dead for good