What Tools/Machinery Needed To Deal With This?

[Mr Sparkle]

My garden has overgrown (see pics) and I would like to know the easiest way to deal with a 9 foot bush

What tools/machinery do I need in order to make light work of this prickly bushy green?

I am willing to invest in some decent kit if it will ensure a fast efficient job

 

[Stivino]

A pair of loppers and a full leather body suit.

 

[Mr Sparkle]

A pair of loppers and a full leather body suit.

Nooo

Surely there must be some sort of power tool I can buy to chop through this? How about a chemical perhaps to weaken the greens, as it is thick and prickly ?

 

[Stivino]

It's Bramble. Loppers will make mincemeat out of that in ten minutes. The biggest problem will be the barbs.

 

[Tigercubrider]

If you or a mate have a garden shredder it will help
Otherwise you end up with a massive pile of prickly stuff to handle
Cutting and shredding in one go is far easier

Just a pair of secateurs or lopper will work, but as said, something like a motorbike jacket and thick gloves.
I have used welding gloves before.

 

[lostinthelight]

If the large shrub has big thorns and gets berries in autumn , it looks like pyracantha

 

[StephenStephen]

I'd just cut it back with secateurs, and maybe a hand garden saw (if I wanted to take it further back). An hour or two.
It's a shrub that needs pruning (it's not a house that needs demolishing or a door that needs paint stripping!).
Absolutely don't use chemicals - pointless, expensive, dangerous.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Get into the bush and cut all the stems that come out of the ground, then leave it to die back for a couple of weeks. Then it would be easy to cut up.

Andy

 

[sodthisforfun]

Nooo

Surely there must be some sort of power tool I can buy to chop through this? How about a chemical perhaps to weaken the greens, as it is thick and prickly ?

Even if you manage to kill it with weedkiller, you won't weaken the thorns. It will simply go from green and spiky to brown and spiky! You won't gain anything at all. Get in there, get going - take the radio out with you and chop it down!! Be quite therapeutic

 

[scbk]

A strimmer/brushcutter with a mulching blade would deal with that in a few minutes, but there's no point buying one just for the job!

Another option is cut it with loppers etc then when it's on the ground run over it multiple times with a mower, to smash it up/collect it.

 

[Michael Beaumont]

Pyracantha is a poisonous vicious shrub but had a nice flower. Cutting it back does require thick gloves and arm protection as those thorns are horrible.
As said, loppers are adequate as using machinery on these will make the fall unpredictable.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Another vote for welding gloves- they're excellent for dealing with spiky plants.

 

[StephenOak]

To me, the first photo looks more like pyracantha and the second more like bramble. As it is an overgrown area, it could well be a planted pyracantha where some bramble has sown itself.

I have pyracantha near the house (planted by previous owners as a deterrent to climbing the fence) and lots of bramble around the garden. Brambles are almost impossible to eradicate w/o using a herbicide repeatedly or by digging up & removing a lot of soil as they regrow from roots.

My pyracantha had been left alone for too long (5+ years) before I tackled it early last year and it was much bigger (well over 20' in places) but a mate & I tidied it up in a day with secateurs, loppers and occasionally a saw - some parts were 4-5" thick.

When doing that I wore ordinary leather gardening gloves as we mostly were cutting off branches and so could hold them by non-thorny parts.

Before shredding everything I bought a pair of these
https://www.screwfix.com/p/stanley-split-cowhide-leather-driver-gloves-brown-large/23256
which gave better protection but still I ended up with loads of tiny pin-pricks on my hands. So personally I would look into welding gloves before doing this again.

Brambles I just cut off any long runners with secateurs and then dig up to remove as much root as possible. I always cut off the root ball from brambles before shredding to avoid getting stones / grit in my shredder.

It is very late in the year to be significantly cutting a pyracantha, birds may be nesting now. That sort of work s/b done October to February.

In your position I would take off some of the lowest parts that are sticking out (e.g. up to waist height) to create access to the ground so that you can get rid of as many brambles as possible. When, not if, the brambles come back let them get several inches high with plenty of greenery and spray with a glyphosate herbicide. You must spray the leaves as that is how glyphosate is absorbed, it is then translocated to the roots and kills the plant. That takes a couple of weeks. You may well need to treat brambles again later in the year. As I said they are very persistent.

When getting close to pyracantha make sure that you wear eye-protection. The thorns are wicked, the branches are twisty and springy.

 

[Munroast]

Pyracantha is a poisonous vicious shrub but had a nice flower. Cutting it back does require thick gloves and arm protection as those thorns are horrible.
As said, loppers are adequate as using machinery on these will make the fall unpredictable.

Pyracantha or Firethorn can be beautiful in may and june, they're also a wonderful safe place for birds to nest, so please be careful when you come to destroy yours that there are no birds currently nesting. Late autumn would be a good time to remove it.

We had one here that we removed end of last year, just used clippers and welding gloves, you can't rush the job as those thorns are a bit vicious.

 

[Mr Sparkle]

Thanks for the comments lads.. Very helpful indeed

(Orders welding gloves )