On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 09:37:08 +0000, Ian White
wrote:

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

Get a chap in. They're ready equipped with billhooks, gloves, chipper
and a pickup to drag the mess away afterwards. If you use the right
people (I can give you a recommendation for Bristol) then the cost
looks reasonable against the hire and disposal charges for DIY.


If you do DIY, then you need to be properly tooled up to do it. This
includes a real billhook (minimum 50 years old) - tenner from eBay
(search for "mrayre" as a seller) and ideally a long-handled slasher
too. Get a scythe stone too. If it's hawthorns rather than brambles, I
prefer my khukri (army issue) as it will cut a thicker branch than a
straight billhook.

Also useful if you're doing this in the green season is a paraffin
weed burner, to wilt the greenery a week before you attack the stems.
Glyphosate will do it too, but is nothing like so much fun.

For gloves, welding gauntlets are nice and long, but I usually wear
"Panda" brand cloth-backed rigger gloves for heavy stuff (dark brown
and yellow) as they're far more heavily made than the old pale green
chrome leather jobs. Shiny buckskin surfaced gloves look nice, but
they rip up on thorns in no time.

Once you have brambles down to stumps, dig them out. Good rootstocks
will make you a friend with any carver or woodturner. Glyphosate the
remnants.

I _wouldn't_ run a rotovator over it, at least not immediately.
Chopped rootstock on healthy plants can re-grow. You want it well
starved and dead before you chop it up. Hanging before quartering.

--
Smert' spamionam