02. Fog of Blackberry War
Woman vs. blackberry — who will win?
When we first moved in, the property was overgrown with wild blackberries and stinging nettle. It was not until I started cutting away at the berries that we discovered the edges of the property. In total, we made accessible about 20,000 square feet of property — or nearly half an acre!
How did I do it?
After a summer of scratched up arms and trials with various tools, here is my secret recipe! For tools I recommend: safety glasses, cactus gloves, rubber boots, long armed loppers, a pickaxe for pulling up the roots and a gorilla crate for hauling it all away. I started high, cutting away any blackberry vines over my head. Then I aimed low, cutting near the base of the blackberry plant. Then the fun part! I would stomp on the blackberry plant to squish it down and make the next batch of blackberry accessible.
Steps to remove overgrown blackberry
In some areas once I cut the blackberries to stubs, I used a lawn mover to make them as short as possible and then covered with cardboard and the detritus of blackberry. The idea is that the cardboard and compost will slowly decompose, and without access to sunshine, the blackberry root will die. Another tactic that I found useful was to leave the cut blackberry in place and let it dry out before moving it. Also, once the soil was saturated with water in the winter, it was much easier to pull out the roots.
Blackberries had also interwoven themselves into our massive laurel hedge in the front yard. Since I did not want to damage the hedge, they were much tricker to pull out one by one. It was also near impossible to pull out the roots, so I will have to keep cutting back any new growth until they give up.
Stinging nettle —my archnemesis number two — was much easier to just pull out compared to the blackberries. However, they keep re-popping up everywhere. For now, I am stomping them out wherever I see them.
Did I win?
Jury is still out. I fear that if I don’t actively plant in the areas where I took out the blackberries and stinging nettle, it will just come back. We live next to 40 acres of native forest full of these invasive plants.
I suppose the next step for this one is to keep fighting!