Containing brambles

[john4703]

I want to plant some brambles and keep them contained in one area of my garden. As far as I know they spread in two ways.

1. The roots spread underground.

2. The branches lie on the ground and form roots and spread.

The second is easy to cope with, I just need to remove any shoots that are getting away from where I want them.

My question is about the underground spread. I will dig a trench, put in a concrete footing and build a brick wall to stop the roots but how deep do I need to go? I don’t want to do a fair amount of work and then discover the roots go deeper than I thought. I was thinking a wall that goes 750mm below ground level should be deep enough. Is that more or less than needed?
I do enjoy bramble jam.

 

[mattylad]

Napalm the lot, the whole area needs it - multiple bombing runs.

This task you have is par with a macerator repair.

 

[scbk]

Concrete and bricks is a bit ott for brambles!

What is bordering the area? if it's grass, running past with a mower twice a year will keep them in check

 

[sodthisforfun]

I wouldn't put brambles anywhere near my garden personally, just go picking berries when they're around!

 

[john4703]

They are next to where we grow onions or pea and beans. My concern is roots travelling underground. The above ground stuff is easy to control. We used to have them in a different place but decked that area and built a summerhouse on top. I used to cut them right back to ground level every year and we always got loads of fruit. The problem was the branches got into a flower bed and rooted there.

 

[conny]

They can be very invasive and, even controlling the above ground shoots that try to root, will not stop the roots pushing new shoots up somewhere else in the garden.
The house I am in had a bramble/blackberry bush in a flower bed next to the window. Previous tenant never bothered to control it and subsequently we now have bramble stems coming up in the centre of the front hedge about 10 metres away. I have got my hands into the hedge and cut the brambles back to ground level but every few weeks we can see another stem poking through the top of the hedge.
Stick to picking the wild ones.

 

[johnny2007]

Don't do it.
It took me years to get rid of mine which despite digging out roots and poisoning them kept on coming out.
Eventually a cloth soaked in brick cleaner and wrapped around freshly cut roots killed the monster.

 

[jcr71]

plant them in pots rather than the ground perhaps?

 

[conny]

plant them in pots rather than the ground perhaps?

And move the pots occasionally to check roots aren't growing through the drain holes and taking root in the subsoil.

 

[john4703]

20200905_183125

• john4703
• 5 Sep 2020

I have taken your advice and built this large container. It is on concrete blocks so clear of the ground. I now need to fill it with soil and plant some brambles. It is well away from any other productive part of our garden.

 

[sodthisforfun]

While that's a great box, will you actually get enough berries to make jam out of a box that size? Jam takes a lot.

 

[johnny2007]

Put some explosive at the bottom, just in case you need to get rid of the spiky plant one day.
BTW, it takes a lot of berries for a little jar of jam.
A lot more that you can grow in that box.

 

[john4703]

While that's a great box, will you actually get enough berries to make jam out of a box that size? Jam takes a lot.

It will be about a tonne of soil. It us 2.2m long and 600mm high and 600mm wide. We used to grow them in a bad roughly that size.