Tackling the Brambles: Part Two

We've been pretty busy lately and haven't had as much time at the allotment as we would have liked. The arduous task of removing brambles had been left for the last couple of weeks as we've only really been down to collect redcurrants and check on the fruit bushes. Yesterday, however, we had a good 5 hours down there and made considerable progress with clearing the space where our shed's going to go.

After Googling how to get rid of brambles and reading up on other people's experiences, we just opted for the simple method of cutting them back manually then digging the roots out. We don't have strimmer so just cut them back with secateurs then dug into the ground with a fork to loosen the soil until we could start pulling the roots out. God, those bramble roots spread far! It was an eyeopener to follow them along under the surface and see just how far they went.

We've now cut back as far as we plan to so once we've removed the rest of the bramble roots, it will (hopefully) just be a case of keeping the brambles cut back to the area they currently occupy and taking care not to let them start taking over the bottom third of the plot again. If we were planning on removing ALL the brambles, I think we'd have to give in and borrow a strimmer from someone, and we'd likely need a lofty stepladder too as the brambles are so high. We're going to leave the brambles right at the end of the plot though as that patch doesn't get a great deal of sun and there are lots of frogs living down there. I like the idea of leaving one little part of the plot as natural as possible and I love blackberries so am happy to leave one section of brambles!

We had originally decided to leave the bulk of the brambles until after we'd collected all the blackberries in a couple of months' time, but yesterday, we just got on a roll and kept hacking and hacking! The section we removed was absolutely swamped in bindweed, and there was also a lot of dead wood mixed in with the brambles. We must have cleared about 15 square metres of brambles and bindweed. We need to go back this week and finish digging up the roots but we got some seriously heavy duty roots out yesterday - so satisfying! Equally satisfying is removing bindweed - metres and metres of it - in one movement! That stuff is relentless yet weirdly satisfying to pull off other plants and bushes. Of course, the omnipresent mare's tail was also shooting up alongside/inside/all around the brambles so we pulled up a lot more of that too, some of it 5 or 6 feet tall. I hate that stuff!

Before...

After...

Before the sunburn :-(

I also got a bit sunburnt, which I'm really annoyed about as I'm usually so careful. It was blazing sunshine later in the day but distinctly overcast for half the time we were there and it just slipped my mind to SPF up. I'm starting to understand why all the allotment holders have such a healthy glow all year round.

We're hoping to get down to the plot a few evenings this week - weather permitting - and get rid of the rest of the bramble roots, as well as level out the ground ready for the shed base.

All being well, we're aiming to get our shed delivered on Saturday and spend the weekend constructing it. So exciting to think we won't have to cart our tools back and forth every time any more! It will make it so much easier to pop down to the allotment; plus the car will no longer need valeting every 5 minutes. I think having the shed will make the plot finally really feel like "ours" and I can't wait to turn it into a little haven where we can sit and have a break from all the hard work and get out of the sun/rain as needed.