Brambles: How to get rid of them. Updated!

I received a really intelligent question recently, from a reader  (*waves to Fiona*)  who read my various posts on the subject, going right back to the original How To Get Rid of Brambles post, back in 2012, and was unable to add her question, as apparently that article is not accepting any more comments on it: there are well over 100 comments, so maybe there's a limit? . 

So Fiona contacted me direct, to ask the following: "I’m wondering if anything in your advice has changed recently given all the adverse publicity about glyphosate. I’m quite worried by all these Roundup legal claims and the health implications."

This is an excellent question, because things change over time: we learn more, more research is published,  we alter our views: so it's good that readers are not automatically assuming that something they read on the internet from a decade ago, is still valid.

In this case, the answer is "yes, I stand by every word of every bramble article I have ever written" (if you want to know more about the subject of killing brambles, just type "brambles" into the Search box, top left of the screen... ) which can be summed up as:

1) Dig them out if you possibly can: but you don't have to dig out yards of roots, just ensure you get the "crown" or growing point, which is usually in inch or so below the surface of the soil.

2) If you have a lot of them, chop down the top growth first, as they make an impenetrable thicket of spiteful stems, which will rip through the stoutest gloves, and most trousers. So hack them down manually with whatever you have - a brushcutter, a heavy-duty strimmer, loppers, even just a pair of secateurs if you have to: snip your way in, reducing the mad tangle to short lengths. Rake away that lot, and then you are able to dig out the roots.

3) Don't use a rotavator, or any digging machinery - it will just chop the roots (and crowns)  into small lengths, which will simply re-sprout and things will be worse than before. 

4) If you really, really can't get at the roots to dig them out - and this includes under decks, down the side of sheds, between patio slabs,  over next door's fence etc - then the only recourse is weedkiller. Don't look at me like that, this is the real world, and although I generally try to be as "organic" as possible, there are times and situations where we just have to turn to chemicals: and brambles out of reach, is one of them.

I suppose I should also insert 4b) at this point: in my opinion, no, there is no organic alternative. Salt kills everything, and poisons the soil for year afterwards: vinegar ditto, and I have yet to find one of those "miracle home remedies" which actually works. So it will have to be proper commercial weedkiller, which has been through rigorous testing to give us a product which is simple and safe to use, as long as we follow the instructions on the pack, and use our common sense.

However, there are provisos to using weedkiller:

A) For preference, I will always use a product containing just Glyphosate. Because Glyphosate, of all the weedkillers, is inactivated on contact with the soil, so it doesn't "poison" the soil. It doesn't hang around for years, it doesn't get washed into water courses. I always suggest not using combined weedkillers, the ones which claim to kill in 24 hours: just use Glyphosate and be prepared to wait a fortnight or so, for the effects to become visible. 

B) Always use the absolute minimum of the product: don't splash it around all over the place:  put it in a small, hand-held squirty bottle and adjust the spray so that it is narrow - then just spritz the newly sprouting leaves. Don't spray until everything in sight is dripping: just enough that the top surface is shiny wet, that's enough. If you have other plants nearby, you can add something like wallpaper paste to the diluted mixture then paint it on with a small paintbrush

C) Don't spray on windy days!  Wait until it's calm, otherwise the almost invisible spray can "drift" across to other plants. Which would be bad.

D) Don't have the spray too fine: you don't want a mist, which can drift away, you want a fairly "wet" spray, which will fall exactly where you direct it. This also massively reduces the chances of you breathing it in. Which leads to:-

E) Wear suitable protective equipment: always wear gloves, and wash your hands after using any chemical, garden or otherwise. If you have concerns about breathing it in, wear a mask: goodness knows that we all all have enough masks lying around the house these days! If you don't have any masks, tie a large hanky over your lower face. Remember - if you can smell it or taste it, you are breathing it in, which means that it's too fine a spray, and/or it's too windy a day.

Do I have concerns about the safety of using Glyphosate, for us humans? No - as long as we READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and follow them. Dilute as per instructions: don't attempt to make an extra strong mix "because it will work better".  Pay attention to the size of your spray - keep it as small as possible - and to the misty-ness of the spray: keep it quite wet, don't use a very fine spray. The nozzles of spray bottles are adjustable, so fill them with plain water first, twist the nozzle to adjust the wetness of the spray and the size of the spray, and practice using it, before you put the weedkiller in the bottle.

 I read the original report on the outcry against the use of Glyphosate (I can't find it now, but it's there on the internet somewhere) and there were some interesting facts, including:

- the workers concerned were spraying for up to 10-12 hours a day.

- they were not wearing PPE at all

- the product had not been diluted correctly 

- it was a hot country, so they were mostly bare armed, and bare legged. And in many cases, barefoot, which gives you a clue about what sort of country we are talking about.

- they had no hand washing facilities, not information about keeping the product off their skin, and not ingesting it. 

This is almost a direct repetition of the famous "plasticiser in cling film" controversy, from back in the 80s: mice were fed huge doses of the plasticiser, and many of them died.  Hardly surprising, but the report was leaked, quoted out of context, and the next thing you know there was a huge outcry and all the plastics manufacturers had to find another way to make cling film clingy, even though it was perfectly safe for us to use it as it was. Heyho.

So as far as Glyphosate is concerned, I am not concerned: I only ever use it as a last resort, I use the minimum amount, carefully applied, taking precautions to protect myself before and during application, and washing my hands afterwards.

 You can make up your own minds: but please, do some research, don't just read the internet equivalent of tabloid headlines, ie most of the internet. Find some research papers, find some scientific studies, read some journals. And then make up your own minds. 

Fiona also had a question about the actual application: she asks " would it work to cut and remove all the top growth, leaving short stalks, then treat each stalk by cutting it down almost to the ground and immediately painting the cut end with glyphosate?"

I am not sure, is the answer to that one: logically, yes: however, a lot of trees, and many plants, react to a wound of this sort by either pouring out sap, much the same way that we bleed when we cut ourselves: or they immediately seal over the wound, rather like us forming a scab. So the product would not be "sucked in" to the cut stem. The point of applying it to the leaves is that leaves are designed to transport nutrients and water: they have internal transport systems, and that's what we take advantage of, when we apply weedkiller to their surfaces.  I am reminded at this point of the Japanese Knotweed problem: one of the partially-effective methods of killing that one is to cut the stems down, then inject them with glyphosate: but you will notice that the product is injected, below the cut. This would suggest that painting the cut surfaces has proved to be ineffective, and it may well be the same with brambles - I don't know. 

An obvious suggestion is to treat one side of the patio in this way, and treat the other side with the usual "spritz the new leaves", and compare them. Take photos! Let me know! *laughs*

 A further question was "If in some places I can spritz what you call the ’tiny new regrowth’, how small can this regrowth be to take in enough glyphosate to be effective?"

I have never actually measured the minimum regrowth required - I find that they are bare stems one day, and have three leaves the next day, so my description of  ‘a couple of tender young leaves’ really means just to catch them as soon as you can. This is for two reasons: firstly, those tender young leaves will be most susceptible to absorbing the product: as leaves mature, they get tougher, and they transport nutrients etc less efficiently, so it makes sense to use the youngest leaves. And secondly, if you let them grow a gigantic tuft of foliage, well, they will then have a bunch of foliage which is photosynthesising, and building up their nutrient reserves again. We want to force them to deplete those stores (ie to produce new leaves) and then kill them before they have a chance to re-stock.

Well, there you have it: an updated Bramble Destruction article, and I hope that it answers all of Fiona's questions - if you have any additional questions, do please feel free to ask!

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Cherry Shot Hole: how to tackle it

I had a question from Marta, one of my regulars, a few days ago (*waves to Marta*): one of her Cherry trees is suffering from a fungal attack, and she wasn't quite sure what to do about it.

Here is a leaf, showing the damage - lots of small holes, puncturing the leaf.

It looks as though someone has been shooting the leaves, and - amusingly - the name for this problem is Cherry Shot Hole Disease.

Because it looks as though someone has fired a shotgun through it.

So, what's Shot Hole Disease, then?

Firstly, it's a catch-all term for a number of fungus and bacterial attacks: I won't give you the scientific names because - well, it doesn't really matter exactly which one you have, the treatment is going to be the same.

The pathogen (which can be fungus or bacteria) is spread by spores, which land on the leaves, and form tiny lesions, or spots. Usually reddish-brown, sometimes quite black.

As these spots grow, the fabric of the leaf dies, and the dead material falls out, leaving a small hole right the way through the leaf.

Later in the summer, the affected leaves turn yellow, and then drop off.

Obviously, this looks dreadful, and is not good for the tree! If left untreated, the tree will eventually die. Well, ok, all trees will die "eventually", but an infected tree will die in a couple of years, far sooner than it ought to.

So what can we do about it?

First things first, we need to break the cycle of spore infection. There's no point spraying anything onto the tree once the infection is present: but in autumn, every single leaf must be raked up and burnt, or put into your green waste bin (the council green waste is processed at high temperatures, which should kill all spores) (and if you are interested, read all about it here!).

This means that you have to keep looking out for falling leaves, and clear up every single one. They don't all fall neatly on one day, so start in late summer, and be vigilant. The spores are formed on the dead leaves over the winter, and released the following spring, so it's important to clear them all away.

This doesn't mean that you have to pick all the leaves off the tree - you can wait for them to fall naturally, but if some of the leaves are mostly yellow, and are clearly really badly damaged, then yes, you can go up a ladder and carefully pick off the damaged leaves. They should be easy to remove, because they are already dying - but make sure you don't damage the branches by ripping the leaves off when they are not ready to be removed.

Right, so now we've removed the main source of spores: but there will still be some spores around, not least because they float through the air, and if anyone else nearby has a Cherry (or any other Prunus such as Plum, Cherry Laurel, etc) which is infected, then their spores might drift over onto your trees.

So, as soon as the leaves start to appear, treat the whole tree with a systemic fungicide, which you will need to apply fortnightly (or as per the instructions on the pack) from the first signs of leaves appearing, which will be Feb and March. 

This might sound like an impossible task - how do you spray an entire tree? - but most Cherry trees are comparatively small, and there won't be a canopy of leaves, so at least you can see what you are doing.  Use a good quality spray bottle: wear a mask, gloves, long sleeves, and goggles: and spray from the bottom up, otherwise you find that you get dripped on when you try to spray the lower branches.

If this sounds too daunting, get someone with a spray licence to do it for you: contact your local arborist firms, they should either be able to do it, or will know someone who can.

Hopefully, by clearing up all the debris in autumn, and spraying early the following spring, your Cherry trees will be able to produce undamaged leaves, and will regain their full vigour.

As always with fungal problems, good airflow is helpful, so if your tree is very congested, it might be worth thinning out some of the canopy, to allow light and air to pass freely through the tree. Cherry trees should be pruned every 3-5 years anyway, to keep the canopy open, and to remove dead or damaged branches, and this can really help to keep the tree healthy.

And as a general point, I would suggest ensuring that the base of the tree is clear of weeds and grass, so that it's not having to deal with too much competition: if it's a dry spring, then water it well, once a week for a few weeks: and you could give it some balanced feed such as Growmore, scattered around the base of the tree, or a liquid feed such as liquid Seaweed, watered in well.

As the year progresses, keep an eye on the tree, and if necessary, repeat the whole process again in autumn, followed by spraying again the following spring.

Hopefully, this will allow your Cherry to recover. If, however, you can't seem to beat the infection, then it might be better to replace the tree with a Cherry which is resistant to disease: but it's always worth trying to save your existing trees, if you possibly can.

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Box Moth Caterpillar: How to spot it: How to deal with it

Firstly, what is it? 

It's a "new" pest which is affecting our beloved Box hedges and topiary: it's as destructive as Blight, it spreads as quickly as Blight, and it's working across the UK, as I can tell by the increasing numbers of questions I am receiving on this topic. 

It was introduced to the UK in 2008 - accidentally, we assume - and I encountered it for the first time in Oxfordshire in 2022, and I'm seeing a steady increase in the incidence of the damage, which looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the name suggests, it's the caterpillar of a moth which is doing all the damage, so it's a flying pest, which explains how it has spread so rapidly. And, as it's an introduction to the UK, there's nothing here that eats it: hence the fast spread, and the sheer amount of damage it can do.

So let's take a look at it....

 

 

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2023 - what a good year for Hellebores!

Normally, at this time of year, I'm writing articles about how to clear out the Hellebores: reminding you that it's time to snip off the flowering stems because we don't want thirty million Hellebore seedlings which won't flower for between 5-7 years, and even when they do, there's no guarantee as to what the flowers will be like......

... and that it's time to remove those browning leaves, not just because they are starting to look horrible, but because they are spreading Hellebore Black Spot.

However, this year, look!

 

Not a black spot to be seen, and they look lush and wonderful!

This means that there is none of the usual urgency to remove the tired old leaves: we can enjoy them for a while longer, because they are still photosynthesising, still feeding the plant, and as they are not spreading the spores of the Black Spot infection, well, there's no point cutting them off!

In fact, just to show what a weird year this has been already, some of "my" Hellebores are still flowering:

There, can you see it? 

Perhaps I should have said that they are "re-flowering", as they've already done the usual big flowers - and now I'm seeing a few tiny little flowers!

I don't think I've ever found Hellebores flowering in June before.... 

I suppose it's just another sign of changing climate: we've seen many examples of plants flowering out of season, in recent years, and I guess this is just another one to add to the list.

And it doesn't mean that we are going to be able to compost the non-Black-Spotty leaves: nope, they are still too coarse and tough for normal home composting, so on the bonfire heap they will go - in another few weeks!

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Pulsatilla - a plant for more than one season!

Last week, a Client came rushing out to meet me, asking about the wonderful new flower which had appeared in a bed which I replanted for them, the previous year. 

 “What is it?” they cried, grabbing me by the wrist and hauling me round to the bed in question: “We've never seen it before, and it's gorgeous!” 

The “flower” in question was not a flower at all, but the fluffy seed-heads of Pulsatilla vulgaris, or Pasque Flower. 

It had done its duty back in March, producing lovely nodding flowers surrounded by interestingly furry-looking foliage: and now, in late May, the seed heads had fluffed up and were looking quite dramatic. 

Looking good - right - with an underplanting of purple Sedum. And a bit of blue grass, probably Festuca glauca to complement their firework-like spikiness.

Pulsatilla is a plant which can often be overlooked when deciding what to put in a bed or border: it's quite low growing, and appears very early in the year, when maybe we don't want to spend so much time outdoors. 

But it's easy to grow: it is happy in sun or in part shade, and it really thrives in rather poor, light soil. 

You often see them grown in gravel gardens, or growing through shingle, but they're just as happy in a border, as long as it is fairly well drained. 

They usually come in shades of purple and magenta, and - as you can see - a beautiful clear white.

In another few weeks it will be dying back, by which time it will be covered up by the various Astilbe, Sedum (that purple thing which gives it such a good backdrop - good planning by the gardener, there!) geranium and other later-flowering plants.

Then at some point over the winter, all those plants will die down, and I'll cut back all their foliage in time to reveal the furry new foliage of the Pulsatilla, early next year.

All in all, a lovely little plant, for more than just one season!

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