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Monday 3 July 2017

Tackling the Brambles: Part One

...part one of several hundred, sadly. Probably. While we haven't attempted to measure how much of the far end of our allotment is taken over by towering brambles, it's possibly around 20 square metres, and they reach heights of well over 8 feet.

As well as the monstrous brambles at the end of our plot, there are several smaller bushes scatter along the perimeter fence down one side. It was these brambles we tackled at the weekend,  digging up the roots of two very well-established bushes. We'd cut the brambles back during the previous week so all we had to do this time was dig up the roots. I say "all we had to do", but this was far harder than anticipated!



We also found lots more glass, an assortment of very old, very rusty old garden tools, a manky soil sieve and a few broken plates, pieces of old metal signs, lots of bricks and a metal pole inserted so solidly and deeply into the ground that we initially thought it had been cemented in. It was exhausting, and we probably only managed to clear about 2 square meters of ground in the end. It's satisfying to know we've got rid of two very stubborn bramble bushes and a great deal of rubbish though!



We're planning on laying a path down both edges of our plot this summer, and hope to order our shed in the next couple of weeks, so this is what we're working towards at the moment. We've selected a spot for our shed and are planning to have a small seating area next to the shed and apple and pear tree.



We've currently got around 54 square metres currently covered with heavy duty weed membrane, We've been using Yuzet Heavy Duty Weed Control Fabric from Amazon and we're pretty impressed so far! It's managed to withstand lots of very strong winds (several other plotholders' greenhouses unfortunately didn't) and seems to be doing the job. We've held it down with a combination of bricks - as you can see in the picture - and pegs. I'd definitely recommend using pegs if you can as they look neater, you're less likely to trip over them, and they hold the weed membrane firmly in place. So, while the weed suppressant does its job and (hopefully) kills off the remaining weeds underneath, we're concentrating on our first path and our shed. And also collecting a few berries!

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