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.

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!

No. 22: Positives so far!

While it's easy to be disheartened by the amount of work we've got to do, we have come across some positives so far!

Cherry tree

We've been told by other plotholders that our cherry tree is way too big and should have been kept to a height of around 10 feet ideally. I've no idea how tall it currently is...20 feet maybe? It's hard to tell. When we first viewed the plot it was in full blossom and looked so pretty that it definitely helped sell the plot to us. It went on to drop a lot of cherries before they were ripe and it hasn't been possible to cover it this year to protect the cherries from birds as it's so huge so I'm not sure we'll get much from it this season. We plan to cut it back considerably when we can and give it a little TLC.

cherry tree in full blossom (April)

Redcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries

When we viewed the plot, we were told we had a few raspberry bushes at the entrance. Turns out it's not just raspberries.

redcurrants starting to ripen (June)

The bushes were/are absolutely swamped by weeds and mare's tail (of course!) but we're working on clearing them. There was an awful lot of bindweed strangling the fruit bushes but we've made good progress with this. We've got a few decent berries from the bushes, and the goosberries have probably fared best of all this year. Perhaps they're simply more able to stand up to neglect and pests than redcurrants and raspberries? Hopefully by next summer we will manage to get a decent harvest from this part of the allotment!

Apple and pear trees

We originally thought we had two apple trees, but it soon transpired one was in fact a pear tree. Neither tree looked in particularly great condition. and we soon discovered the pear tree had pear leaf blister mite. This turned out to be fairly easily dealt with, despite it not looking very attractive. We're looking forward to seeing how the apples and pears turn out this summer!

apples growing (June)

Brambles

Of course, we also have lots and lots of brambles, reaching around 8 feet high in some places. Possibly a lot more than 8 feet - it's hard to tell! We're going to collect as many blackberries as possible once they're ripe, and then plan to drastically cut back the brambles in the winter. We will probably keep a small area of brambles as they're predominantly right at the back of our plot in a shaded area next to a fence and trees. We're planning to place our compost bin next to that area, and want to leave a small part of our plot relatively untouched for wildlife. We have a lot of frogs on our plot and they seem to be concentrated around that damp, shaded area. Also - blackberries. Who doesn't love blackberry and apple crumble?