Guess what, its brambles!

[Barnowl]

Don't pick them until they are just about falling off, that's when they are sweetest.
Put them in a bowl of of water for a while after picking, if any float discard them
and skim off all the creepy crawlies.  :o

I think a little salt in the water helps but if so don't forget a final rinse

[Barnowl]

[Barnowl]

If you are going to use a systemic, a lot of people recommend giving the plant a bit of a bruising before applying it.

It worked with our marestail (or horsetail - not sure which is which)

[vee]

It sounds odd, but I enjoyed getting rid of the brambles on my plot. I had loads but just cut them into 2ft pieces and piled them up for burning. It was quite therapeutic and a lot quicker than you'd think. I dug the roots up later.

The worst aspect is the stems that grow low down across the ground which can trip you up very easily - be very careful where you are walking until you have cleared the ground.

As others have said leather gloves and smooth clothes rather than woolly jumpers are essential.

[bupster]

I had about 16 sq m of brambles that had grown so vigorously that they had taken out the windows and half the roof of my shed. After around a year of pissing about, I cut them down with a grass hook to about a foot above the ground, and then dug them out - not properly, mind, just hoiked them out as best as I could. Brambles hate disturbed ground. I then left that patch for a couple of months, and then dug out anything that returned. I realise this may not be appropriate for everyone, but it is organic!

PS - agree with everyone on the smooth clothes and gloves thing...

[persephone]

Thanks everybody. We got going on them a couple of weekends ago, getting in there with long handled loppers, grabbing the really thick stems and just pulling. We got some real big ones out, ten foot things. there's a bonfire in the offing now.Its been very therapeutic actually.