Ivy & Bramble Problem

I recently acquired a substantial piece of next door's garden. I bought it because they had let it overgrow massively and it was beginning to cause a problem for us. I asked them either to clear it or to manage it or in the alternative I would take it off their hands and manage it myself. I had hoped they would do one of the former but they chose the latter.

I would like to replant this land with fruit trees next autumn.

The piece of land about 15 x 20 metres in size had been neglected for 20 to 30 years. It was awful! It was covered with ivy and brambles much of which was escaping out into our garden and other neighbouring gardens and round about 15 self set sycamore trees all of which were in very poor condition. Underlying all this was 20 to 30 years of stuff that people had just dumped there.

I set to and cleared the undergrowth with a pole hedge trimmer and a small chainsaw. I cleared out most of the underlying rubbish though some of it is still buried. I hauled ivy of all the fences and cut back brambles as best I could. I then called in a tree surgeon to clear all of the trees. I have engaged him to come back and stump grind the last remnants out early in the New Year.

My problem is this, the entire area is totally crisscrossed with ivy runners.

There are literally thousands of them running all kinds of directions. It is not possible to pull these out by hand. I do not particularly want to glyphosate an area of this size. However within weeks or even days of clearing part of an area the runners re-sprout. It's like vegetarian whack-a-mole.

Can anyone suggest a better way of getting rid of all this ivy and bramble remnants.

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

 

Unfortunately that would have been my 1st option.

A 5 litre of gallop / rosate 360 commercial strength glyphosate.

The only other option is to keep digging them up. Bramble runners dig up quite well and dont regrow as long as the growing bud comes up.

 

Do you want to grow anything afterwards? if not - salt!

Nozzle

 

I have had excellent results with Glyphosate concentrate, applied generously with a small paintbrush to the cut surfaces immediately after cutting back, while the sap is still running.

I originally had a Glyphosate gel, sold for that purpose, but I use the concentrate to mix weedkiller, and, applied undiluted, it works fine. It even worked on the trunk of a bay tree, six inches in diameter, and it works fine on ivy, cut near the ground on all stems.

Check back after a few weeks in case there is anything you have missed or has sprouted.

It is inactivated by contact with the soil, so will not prevent you growing other things.

In your case you will need to cut and clear it enough to see the stems, so you may need several attempts. Due to the waxy leaves, ivy is not much affected by spraying, which is not absorbed.

 

If you just keep going over it with a mower/strimmer it will die and the grass will take over.

Why are you waiting until next autumn to plant? Bare root trees planted in winter are usually cheaper and need less care.

 

.... So in the end what I did was: I had the tree surgeon back to stump grind and at the same time sort the brambles and ivy. We had to take down part of the fence on the other side of our garden and, thanks to a neighbour, bring a digger across his and my garden and in to the new piece of land. He then dug the whole patch over and buired the bramble, ivy and what bits were left of the underelying rubbish about four foot under.

We now have a clean brown field site that I am planning to leave till the spring and tyhen grass seed. I'll give the land the year and then plant in the fruit trees next autumn.

My only minor concern is that in doing that he has brought some clay to the surface in some parts of the garden. I giuess we will just have to live with that.

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

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