Ian White wrote:
Re wind damage, JM wrote:


I'm about to take over about a third of an acre of what's meant to be
wooded paddock, but is largely overrun at ground level by brambles. The
previous owner has managed to return some of it to grass, but has really
only, er, scratched the surface of the problem.

How can I finish the job, as permanently as possible?

I found a hired cultivator was very effective in destroying the vigour
of very well-established brambles - I cut 'em down to near ground level
first by (ab)using a hedge trimmer, then made a couple of passes with a
Serious and heavy cultivator, getting down I'spose about 15cm. The
little slices of bramble root all tried sprouting next season, but
inbetween mulching and pulling up any more vigorous shoots (which had no
root structure to speak of), they didn't get hold.

However, this was only a long strip for a new hedge - 50m long but
little more than 1m wide. Whether the approach would scale to your
paddock without requiring an infeasible amount of labour, I'm not sure.
(Maybe a local farmer/contractor would do you the equivalent of the
cultivator application using a suitable attachment on the back of their
trusty Massey for a few beer vouchers!)

Any specific brand recommendations about genuinely thornproof gloves,
strong enough to let you grab a bramble sucker and haul on it?

Screwfix's welding guantlets do it for me - brambles aren't seriously
nasty thorns (unlike the blackthorn which makes up some 30% of the mix I
planted ;-), so they're more than up to the job, and the extended
wrist/lower forearm coverage is handy.

HTH - Stefek