No spray, no heavy machinery. Lots of blackberry.
Blackberry. It’s fast growing, thorny and invasive. A giant nuisance. And seemingly impossible to get rid of without severe chemical or mechanical intervention. But we are going to try. This is the introduction to how we are attempting blackberry removal without spraying and without the use of heavy machinery.
Anyone who has taken over an ex-forestry block or other neglected rural land will know the battle that is blackberry. It grows anywhere, vigorously, into a thorny tangled mess. In addition to blackberry, we also have another weedy vine that grows in the same spots, climbing over everything including the blackberry and forming huge, impenetrable stands of weeds. No good for anything except bunny habitat and the most determined of pioneer native species.
Not only does the clear felling of forestry create the perfect habitat for the likes of blackberry, but forestry sites also tend to be steep which makes mechanical removal of the invasive plants tricky. Spray is usually the preferred option but not one we were interested in exploring. Not only because of the negative impact of various sprays on most forms of life but also because the result is just dead stands of thorny canes that you still need to clear.
Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) is a perennial shrub that thrives in temperate regions and can grow in a variety of habitats. It has a vigorous growth habit but is thankfully deciduous, giving us a break from its advances over winter. Blackberry is not fussy about soil and is often found colonising disturbed areas like roadsides and of course, forestry areas that have undergone clear felling. Their preference for full sun and quick growth habit makes them perfect for taking over these sorts of sites and providing habitat for wildlife. Blackberries also accumulate essential minerals such as potassium, magnesium and calcium which are great additions to the soil as blackberry decomposes, either as leaves each winter or as a mulch when canes are cut back. In terms of natural succession, blackberry is often the first to show up but will move on when canopy cover increases, and they can no longer access the sunlight levels they prefer.
After years of trying to keep our blackberry invasion under control with a brush cutter, it became obvious that we needed another option. The brush cutter has limited reach and is hard to use on steep slopes due to the need to keep moving. The way it runs (no instant stop) also means that any slip could be disastrous.
In a moment of inspiration while struggling to reach fruiting canes off the edge of a slope, the thought of our old hedge trimmer came to mind alongside the new combi and pole tool options that are available for hard-to-reach branches. The question was posed – would a pole mounted hedge trimmer cut through the blackberry and other weeds and give us a safer option to reach up or down steep slopes and actually make progress in clearing the invasive weeds for good?
A bit of internet research and a trip to our local Stihl shop gave us enough confidence to purchase the gear and give it a go. The hedge trimmer and pole saw were the attachments of choice to start with. Enough to take on the blackberry as well as manage our tree pruning requirements for a few years.
Introducing the tool for the job
The tool we chose was the Stihl KMA 135R with two AP 300 S batteries, a hedge trimmer attachment and the pole pruner/saw attachment (mini chainsaw). We are slowly trying to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels so having the battery option was important to us. We are solar powered at home, so we just charge the tool’s batteries when our house batteries are full for the day.
Battery life is always a concern with electric tools, but it turns out that with the kind of work we are doing, our bodies tend to run out of steam before the battery does! We can work through blackberry for an hour and still not run out of battery, and then it is charged again in 45 minutes so we could theoretically take the second battery out while the first is on charge and work continuously. Neither of us has felt the need to test that out yet!!
how it works
The hedge trimmer cuts incredibly well at right angles to the blackberry canes. With the tangled mess that most vines were in, it took a while to figure out the most efficient way to cut through walls of canes. In most areas a combination of cutting movements is required – vertical cuts to slice horizontal canes, horizontal cuts to slice upright canes – especially at ground level to cut the canes at the base. Best case scenario the canes are all growing in the same direction, and they can be sliced and diced with single direction cuts. Added bonus, the trimmer works in both directions. With the reach you get from the pole, it is possible to just stand in one spot and wave it backwards and forwards until you achieve the desired results. Just make sure you keep the blade at full extension away from you! Another bonus is that you can cut in a way that results in hundreds of small pieces of cane, leaving a thick mulch layer on the ground. While the thorny mulch isn’t great for barefoot walks, it does appear to be quite good at keeping pesky bunnies away from regrowth of grass species that are starting to show up through the mulched areas.
To see what the hedge trimmer looks like in action check out our YouTube video linked below or check out our channel here for more content.
With the blackberry and undergrowth being really thick in places, we have found that a follow up visit with the brush cutter is beneficial, but this is mainly just for areas that we want to turn into access tracks. In other areas, we just revisit with the hedge trimmer and cut down any remaining cane stumps after things have died down a bit and we can see what is left. Over the spring and summer when the canes start to regrow, we will probably use a combination of tools to keep them under control.
Areas in detail
Now we are going to look at a couple of key areas that we have been working on, how they look currently and how we plan on managing them going forward with the different situations and intended uses.
Entrance Area
This area is at the entrance to our site and is probably one of the least frequently visited areas on foot but we drive past it most days so it would be great if it looked a bit more presentable. There was already blackberry in this area when we purchased the land, originating from the old pile of slash left behind from the forestry days.
To start with we are just clearing a maintenance strip along the front fence line and an access track up the eastern boundary line. The access track is part of our plan to encourage us to maintain different areas of the site. Until now, access has been patchy and so we just haven’t visited certain areas. By creating a series of tracks, we will be able to do loops of the property more easily.
There will continue to be blackberry pressure from next door (although they do spray on occasions) and to the south where we haven’t cleared yet. Our plan at this stage is to plant tithonia in front of the fence to shade out that area for a few years until there is no more regrowth. We will also be planting a row of frost tolerant & fast-growing trees approx. 1.5m back from the fence allowing enough space to maintain between the tree row and the fence.
Over spring and summer, we will maintain a strip either side of the tree row with the aim of returning it to grass. The hope is that by adding fast growing shade, the regrowth will be weakened and less likely to keep returning.
Gully track/platform
One of the few areas on the site that you could possibly get a vehicle to and one that we had managed to keep maintained up until the last couple of years when building work took over.
There is a steep slope on one side of the track and a wet, low area on the other. It is primarily used for access to other parts of the site although in the long term it may be a good spot for animal shelters or other small building. (I’m picturing a small earthship cabin built into the slope).
With this area being a key access point, the plan is to just keep maintaining it with the goal of returning the tracks to grass/ground cover which exists nearby. Even now in late autumn and only a month or so after clearing the blackberry, grass is already starting to return. If I remember to take some seed down there, I will spread some crimson clover into the blackberry mulch to see if it will establish as ground cover. I’m not holding my breath for that though – the resident bunny population find it pretty tasty so it may struggle to get going.
Driveway Edges
This area was cut back multiple times over the summer and has already regained significant grass cover but still has blackberry coming through. There was blackberry pressure coming from the slope below, but this area has now been cut back as well and has regenerating native that will hopefully shade out regrowth on the slope.
Part of this area has been planted out with tithonia at approx. 1m spacings with the goal to shade out regrowth, especially with tithonia being evergreen and getting to a decent size in the spring quicker than blackberry. There is also the potential to add quick growing canopy trees (eg. Albizia, mulberry, tamarillo, senna), particularly along the top of bank to extend the shade of the regenerating natives. I’ll see what plants I have left over from planting other areas and whether there is much blackberry regrowth in early spring before I decide on this.
We have cleared a number of other areas as well but mostly just access tracks that will be maintained and hopefully return to grass, or the fringes of regenerating native where we just wanted to give the trees a hand and give ourselves access to the understory.
Even in the short time that we have had the tool, we have noticed the difference in our ability to tackle hard to reach areas and really make a dent in the blackberry growth. Hopefully all the work through the winter won’t go to waste when the growth spurts of spring and summer hit! If nothing else, at least the new growth will be softer and easier to deal with than the 5-year-old tangled mess we have in some places.
I will follow up on our progress during the warmer months but before then I would love to hear other people’s experiences. Have you attempted to eradicate blackberry without spray before? Did you win? What worked for you? Let us know in the comment so that we have the best chance of winning the battle.
To find out more about Permaculture, Food Forests and the related ideas behind our methodologies, check out our other posts here.
