Weeds: which ones are most troublesome for you?

[nikki4612]

Fighting a losing battle against wild blackberry vines. And before you ask, they aren't the king you can get edible berries from. They'll choke out anything.Anybody know how to kill them without totlly contaminating your soil?

Nikki in Louisiana

 

[baymule]

Fighting a losing battle against wild blackberry vines. And before you ask, they aren't the king you can get edible berries from. They'll choke out anything.Anybody know how to kill them without totlly contaminating your soil?

Nikki in Louisiana

get a goat?

 

[Hinotori]

I was going to say goats to keep it up. Was having headaches and couldn't post on the phone last night. Much easier on the actual computer. Goats are a gold standard up here for blackberries. They even rent out goats for that purpose. Then you just cut the thick stems down to the soil. If you keep goats in the area after that, they pretty much prevent returns. We don't have fencing up yet or I'd have goats and sheep.

So I have to cut down by hand, or try and drive the mower over. Then I must make sure I mow it at least every other week. Don't let the roots get nutrition from new growth so they eventually die. Takes years to kill those roots.

I actually hate the wild roses more. I cut a bunch out last June. Had them laying in a pile out back. They dried up the leaves and the stem ends. I figured when we finally dry out this year, I can shred them. Well last month I was walking by the pile, and there was green rose branches sticking up. I figured oh dropped seeds from birds and went to pull them out. The dang dried up stems and rooted into the soil a couple inches and sent out new branches. I moved that pile at least twice last winter, and never noticed any rooting. I blame the the lack of summer here last year, and the extra rain.

 

[Joel_BC]

So I have to cut down by hand, or try and drive the mower over. Then I must make sure I mow it at least every other week. Don't let the roots get nutrition from new growth so they eventually die. Takes years to kill those roots.

You mention a mower, Hinotori. Are you clear on what the difference between a mower and a rotovator is?

I'd be tempted to rotovate, and then use various hand-powered garden tools (hoe, claw) to get the roots out... pile them and burn them or something. One big clean-up, and likely your annual drudgery with that yard would be reduced by 80% (just guessing).

Of course, I'm not familiar with your terrain, wild vegetation, climate, and the like. And ~gd feels rotovating would be a bad idea. He recommends RoundUp.

 

[pinkfox]

anything the ducks/geese/rabbits wont eat...lol.
weve got these ones that ive no idea what they are, there just tall shoots (up to about 4ft tall) of leaves, never any flowers, just elongate but rounded tip leaves, the rabits will nibble occasionally on them but even the goats ont seem interested lol.

otherwise...the most troublesome weeds aroudn here "cat briar" (as deb thanfully figure out the name of my thorny vines of eye stabbing doom) and apanese Privet...they been put in at one poit as a "pretty privicy hege" and have since taken over what at one point was 4 1/2 acres of meow an pine/oak trees...luckily the goats LOVE them...but its going to take quite a while for them to eat thourhg and meto remove all the trunks ect..there EVERYWHERE!

 

[Hinotori]

So I have to cut down by hand, or try and drive the mower over. Then I must make sure I mow it at least every other week. Don't let the roots get nutrition from new growth so they eventually die. Takes years to kill those roots.

You mention a mower, Hinotori. Are you clear on what the difference between a mower and a rotovator is?

I'd be tempted to rotovate, and then use various hand-powered garden tools (hoe, claw) to get the roots out... pile them and burn them or something. One big clean-up, and likely your annual drudgery with that yard would be reduced by 80% (just guessing).

Of course, I'm not familiar with your terrain, wild vegetation, climate, and the like. And ~gd feels rotovating would be a bad idea. He recommends RoundUp.

Oh, yes, I just take the riding lawn mower over the blackberries and roses. I know, bad for the blades, but so are the rocks I hit that the moles push up, or the boulders I don't know about when I mow new areas. I only get stuck occasionally. It takes many passes in both directions to get them cut down all the way. The mower will only go through those smaller than a half inch. Bigger sizes and denser clumps I have to use pruners. Hubby wants a brush hog for it.

We have a very rocky soil. It's glacial till, so it has mixed up sizes on the rocks. When I rototilled the garden area, which is only 50x50, I had to keep stopping and pulling out large rocks to keep going. We bought a heavy duty tiller that was rated for rocky soils because of this.

The soil itself has quite a bit of clay, is heavy, and gets very hard when it dries out. We had to trench 100 ft to put in a new power line to the house two years ago. It took us 5 hours of back breaking work. Hubby would hit a rock and i'd be down trying to dig them the rest of the way out by hand. We actually had to detour around one since it was a boulder, and we only managed to break off a 40 pound piece with the sledge hammer before it won and we were tired of it. Makes me jealous of Moms sandy soil. Might have taken 15 minutes to do that at her house.

I'm wary about using the Roundup because of the water on the property. I don't want to harm the wildlife. Why I'd wait until we are dry to try any of that. If this year stays wet like this, like last year did, we won't be able to do it at all. I don't look forward to weeding in the garden because of the rocks.

So I've been taking the lazy way and mowing where the blackberries and roses come up. The spots that were more lightly infested with roses are looking clear so far this year. I kept scalping with the mower on the lowest setting. The deer helped out, too. They like the soft new ones that push up. I've also killed off the lupine almost fully in the areas I'm going to fence for pasture with the mowing. I should of taken a picture of the lupine last year. Mom still doesn't quite believe me that the flower spikes were taller than me and I had leaves up to my shoulders. All they get is the small little plants where she is.

 

[Joel_BC]

When I rototilled the garden area, which is only 50x50, I had to keep stopping and pulling out large rocks to keep going. We bought a heavy duty tiller that was rated for rocky soils because of this.

If it's an unfenced area, I'd consider hiring a rotovator. They're pulled by a tractor, are very heavy-duty, and they get down considerably deeper than a rototiller, so you get more advantage on the roots. On the other hand, 50x50 feet would maybe be too tight for a rotovator if the area is fenced.

If not, then the turnround area would probably be okay. But the other thing is, with all the largish stones that you mention, it's possible you might not be able to hire a rotovator operator who would take the chance on damaging his equipment.

 

[Hinotori]

When we were looking at tractors and attatchments, the dealer was suggesting a specific type of either rotovator or tiller for our soil type because of the stones. I dont really know anything about tractor stuff. He said the type he was suggesting had pins that would shear through instead of damaging the attachment.

The garden is free of all thorny things. Its just normal grass and clover mostly. I tilled it down about a foot.

I was told I wasnt explaining the blackberry issue very well by hubby. It's not a clump, it's all over.. half or more of the 18 acres we have has it. It's a highly invasive pest that spreads rapidly here in western Washington. Only thing I think we have worse is the scotch broom. The south was eaten by kudzu, we've been eaten by these two pests. I'm on top of the scotch broom on our property, neighbor across the road, not so much so I watch for it.

 

[Hinotori]

This property hasn't been managed in at least recent history. There are remnants of wood posts and old barbed wire in spots. Even posts marking the property across the edge of the pond that probably had wire once upon a time. I've found many things just lying out in the bushes. There's a spot covered in blackberry and some other plants that turned out to be a small dump. I've pulled out a milk can, two scythes, a bow saw, and a hand saw out. So I must be careful where ever I go clearing.


This is what I'm dealing with. This is just one of the dense clump areas. It's about 30 feet across by about 300 ft long.

This is me turning just a bit to the left. It's roughly 20 feet across to the trees. There's roses and you can see a cutleaf blackberry (another invasive) in front.

This is from the tracks onto our property at the back. This is why I haven't been able to get back there yet. There are yet more blackberries in that mess. Some are the native ones, which I leave be.

So I'm all for goats and jacob sheep since they browse as well as graze. And we were thinking about a couple highland cows for the same reason. Not sure on that one yet. Not sure if I want to deal with larger animals. Maybe after we build a barn.

 

[Joel_BC]

This property hasn't been managed in at least recent history. There are remnants of wood posts and old barbed wire in spots. Even posts marking the property across the edge of the pond that probably had wire once upon a time. I've found many things just lying out in the bushes. There's a spot covered in blackberry and some other plants that turned out to be a small dump. I've pulled out a milk can, two scythes, a bow saw, and a hand saw out.

Okay. A picture's worth a thousand words! :/

Whole different situation, it would appear... the rest of us here were commenting on soft-stemmed weeds in our garden plots!

What I get from the pictures, while better by far than my earlier ideas based on your posts, leads my thoughts in another direction. Sixty years ago, people still cleared land like that, around here, with a chainsaw, a mattock, and maybe a draft horse to pull out stumps. But since that time, most people have hired a "Bobcat" (small bulldozer with a blade).

As with all weeds, the principle is the same: you don't get very far just cutting off the above-surface parts of the vegetation - you have to get the roots. It's just that you've got a huge challenge to do that given the type of vegetation you have there.