Dangerous Goosberries

[Dirkdigger]

After popping down my allotment today, I was told that some allotments have been told by the council they will probably have to remove their  Gooseberry bushes because of the danger of the thorns. Has anyone else heard of this ?

[Dirkdigger]

[Roy Bham UK]

Oh yes understandable, ::)  it may hurt the lottie vandals when they trash your plot >:(

[TULIP-23]

Oh Roy ;)

Dont be so Cynical haha   Give the Poor little B..gers a Level Playing Field!!! Haha 8)

[Mrs Ava]

Outrageous!  Does that mean the council will come in and clear all of the brambles and nettles as well, after all, they are probably more spiteful than the gooseberry bushes!

[moonbells]

Oh yes understandable, ::)  it may hurt the lottie vandals when they trash your plot >:(

Oh good grief - PC gone mad again. Shall we tell the Daily Mail ;) ?

If it's any consolation to common sense, my lotties have just deliberately planted wild brambles round the perimeter fence at the advice of the police in order to keep out vandals. And the ones doing the planting were councillors...

moonbells

[Roy Bham UK]

That's not a bad idea planting brambles, the downside being that it is a nesting place for discarded rubbish like spent beer cans etc. Ideally climbing Pyracantha would do the business, pretty most of the time too with bright coloured berries and tiny flowers ;D

[gavin]

Bizarre!  :(  What planet are they on?

Hmm, I wonder if I could get our local Tesco and Asda closed down because they've planted thorn bushes to deter vandals? 

Hey, better still - half the roundabouts in town could also be closed down.  And great areas of the public parks, public footpaths and bridleways, local health centres and hospitals, school playgrounds. 

Methinks a certain double standard here (and a hidden agenda?  No that would be cynical!) given that your council either planted or approved the other plantings.

Until your council have got rid of Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed (in accordance with legislation), as well as the brambles and nettles, may I suggest a few good places to plant a gooseberry bush?  ;D ;D

All best - Gavin

[wardy]

My local in bloom group has started planting prickly shrubs to stop folk pinching them.  We planted three tubs with an berberis in each one back in November and they've not got pinched yet.  We're going to plant some Lychnis Molten Lava round them as a  contrast (they;ll probably get nicked as they've no thorns)  ;D

Grasses and phormiums are mostly getting nicked this week  ;D

I agree with Roy about planting pyracantha.  Got one of my own and I got a thorn in my finger and it went septic.  Eeeekk

[moonbells]

That's not a bad idea planting brambles, the downside being that it is a nesting place for discarded rubbish like spent beer cans etc. Ideally climbing Pyracantha would do the business, pretty most of the time too with bright coloured berries and tiny flowers ;D

The reason for brambles is that there's a completely inundated plot which we'd like to see someone take on - but it's never going to happen as long as the brambles are there. So we had a digging party where several of us spent a couple of hours extracting bramble roots and replanting the biggest round the boundary.  There's still loads left but it's a start.  And it's free... and this way, there's a communal fruit area :)

moonbells

[wardy]

What a great idea!  The brambles will be easier to control at the boundaries as you can tie them into suppports etc.  I've got wild brambles at the back of my house and they are delicious and free  :)