Rubbish bags for brambles?

The best bags are those that garden compost comes in. Obviously you have to empty the bags somewhere which means you are chasing your tail initially. Also don't try and put large lengths of brambles in any bag. Chop them down to 6inch lengths or they will be PIA to handle. Once brambles have taken over they can be difficult yo get rid of. Where they touch the ground they have a habit of rooting and creating a new plant. Good luck - it's an awful job.
 
mickledore said:
The best bags are those that garden compost comes in. Obviously you have to empty the bags somewhere which means you are chasing your tail initially. Also don't try and put large lengths of brambles in any bag. Chop them down to 6inch lengths or they will be PIA to handle. Once brambles have taken over they can be difficult yo get rid of. Where they touch the ground they have a habit of rooting and creating a new plant. Good luck - it's an awful job.
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:agree::arghh:
 
mickledore said:
The best bags are those that garden compost comes in. Obviously you have to empty the bags somewhere which means you are chasing your tail initially. Also don't try and put large lengths of brambles in any bag. Chop them down to 6inch lengths or they will be PIA to handle. Once brambles have taken over they can be difficult yo get rid of. Where they touch the ground they have a habit of rooting and creating a new plant. Good luck - it's an awful job.
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Ace answer, nothing to add. (y)
 
But think of all the home made blackberry jam you'll be missing out on.

:D
 
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Why would you get rid of something that produces delicious raspberries/blackberries?

Would love a garden but living in a mid-block flat I have to make do with two miniature fruit trees potted in the car park. Roll on autumn for pears and plums :)
 
If you want lots of fruit then get rid of the brambles which grow like wildfire and produce low quality fruit. In it's place plant something like a Himalaya that grows reasonably in control and produces far more and better quality fruit than a bramble ever will. Then each year cut back the heavily laden stems to make fruit picking easier and carry out a pruning operation all in one go.

Then you can have blackberry crumble for evermore - but only with Bird's Custard!
 
Blackberry20Bush_zpsqbm2cafi.jpg~original
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I might see if a local garden centre has any empty compost bags.

As for the blackberries, I'm afraid I have a 6, 4 and 2 year old that need the space to run about. Trust me, if they're out from under my wifes feet all summer it'll make my life easier in the long run......!
 
Builders rubble bags would be another option. Or if you have a massive amount of the stuff it might be worth buying or hiring a garden shredder. We bought a Bosch one and it's been really useful.
 
Do you not have a recycling bin? Even our council provides a bin for green waste, and they are politically somewhat to the left of North Korea.
 
Our council provides garden waste recycling bags - but you have to pay for them to be collected.

Bonfire? :burn:
 
We use the huge bags that builders merchants deliver sand and gravel in from the back of a lorry with a crane

Go in the back of the car with the seats down for taking to the dump
 
Birds and Ambrosia are both owned by Premier Foods these days. While the cartons and cans of Ambrosia are easier than Birds, the small extra effort of whisking up the "just add water" variety of the latter does allow a thicker (or thinner if one doesn't like shark infested...) mixture. I think Lidl currently have the 1l cartons of Ambrosia at £1.

On topic, Frank had it right in the first reply - compost bags and short lengths. While mincing the brambles in a chopper sounds like a good idea, I've found that the shredders usually end up with a few metres of rope like bramble wrapped around the blades and shaft - takes longer to clear the blockage than to hand chop using decent secateurs!
 
boogie man said:
Builders rubble bags would be another option. Or if you have a massive amount of the stuff it might be worth buying or hiring a garden shredder. We bought a Bosch one and it's been really useful.
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+1 for rubble bags. You can buy rolls of them with the bin bags in places like poundland, Home Bargains etc.
Chopping small is definitely the way to go if you can be bothered as it makes it much easier to get a decent amount in each bag.
 
A really rubbish bag for brambles is a sandwich bag. Atrocious choice.
 
Nod said:
Birds and Ambrosia are both owned by Premier Foods these days. While the cartons and cans of Ambrosia are easier than Birds, the small extra effort of whisking up the "just add water" variety of the latter does allow a thicker (or thinner if one doesn't like shark infested...) mixture.!
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(pssst.....replace that water with milk and it tastes even better :-) )
 
Llamaman said:
A really rubbish bag for brambles is a sandwich bag. Atrocious choice.
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Equally as bad is a used crisp bag, you can get so little in! :cool:

All excellent advice above and as stated the key to the bramble disposal is chopping the pieces as small as you have the patience to do. Decent gloves and secateurs are mandatory. The best thorn resistant gloves I've found are the ones covered in a thick, rubbery vinyl, they won't stop everything but they allow good mobility and dexterity as well as being fairly impervious to the thorns.

Years ago I remember a herbicide called 'SBK Brushkiller'. This would kill brambles but I suspect it's (rightly) outlawed by now and wouldn't be recommended where children or animals anyway, horrible, evil stuff!
 
I've still got some SKB in the shed. Was never very good at killing brambles (or mare's tails). Agree about not shredding brambles. They have a stringy stem that doesn't cut easily and just gives a long stringy mess that's more trouble than its worth to tidy up. Sharp secateurs are best, and the best secateurs are Felco by a mile, but like anything good - not cheap.
 
EspressoJunkie said:
No, there wasn't one when we moved in, and the council wanted us to pay for the privilege of a new one (!) so we declined!
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Aren't you postponing the inevitable? Ours won't take anything unless it is in the greenbin. Any excess I've got to take to the tip myself. Heck if anything our recycling and garden waste bins are the only ones ever full up. The general waste barely has got anything in.
 
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dejongj said:
Aren't you postponing the inevitable? Ours won't take anything unless it is in the greenbin. Any excess I've got to take to the tip myself. Heck if anything our recycling and garden waste bins are the only ones ever full up. The general waste barely has got anything in.
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Ours is the opposite in that we compost most of our garden and kitchen waste so there's hardly ever anything in the garden bin. Our general bin usually has very little in too, but our recycling bins are always rammed to the limit.
 
nilagin said:
I'd recommend several of these, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterproof-Garden-Bag-Container-Rubbish-Waste-Leaf-Plant-Grass-Bag-Refuse-Sack/111421812630?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=20141212152715&meid=1b97895216314a6babec2a7b658be7f6&pid=100338&rk=1&rkt=25&sd=201041424095
the brambles are less likely to break through the woven material.
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I've got one very much like that, although with our council name on the outside. I'm about to throw it in the plastic recycling bin. Pay the post and you can have it, but shout quickly.
 
viv1969 said:
(pssst.....replace that water with milk and it tastes even better :) )
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PITA cleaning out the kettle though! If I'm going to use milk, I'll use the proper powder and sugar rather than the instant stuff - the pan's going to need cleaning anyway.

Not long until it's time for a stroll up the Otter (fnar, fnar!) to pick a few pounds of blackberries for the freezer. We'll get about a pound off our pot growing thornless plant too.
 
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