Frugal Tip # 4 – Clearing Out Blackberry Vines Yourself (No, seriously!)

When Flying Eagle has to leave Flo shows up to take his place in the battle against the vines.

A good friend of ours offered to front us the money to have our backyard cleared out for us to save us time and energy so we could focus on the house itself. He sent someone over to look at the yard (JUST the backyard) and the guy said he could clear it out (no landscaping mind you, just clear out weeds and suckers) for ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS! My husband and I looked at each other with incredulous looks on our faces. We thanked the gentleman and told him that there was no way that much money could be spent on clearing out the backyard.

We had worked inside all day Saturday and found that without any money for materials we were facing the backyard. We had a couple of friends stop by to help us for a few hours at a time and we dove in to the sea of green matter. Of course, the most challenging part of the project was the monster blackberry vines that had literally grown to over ten feet tall. When we had first moved in to this property about thirty three years ago it was full of blackberry vines and given any kind of leeway they will take back over aggressively. For many years we kept a moderate sized hedge of them and during summers made blackberry jams and syrups (for ice cream and pancakes). My older sister was a master canner by the time she moved out on her own.  As I became a teenager it fell to me to keep the blackberry vines in check and when we decided to populate the ENTIRE backyard with a vegetable garden I was sent to do battle with the hedge to make room.

If you have ever tangled with blackberries you know how punishing they can be. Those thorns produce their own kind of piercing, stinging pain that takes about a week to subside once they tag you.  Here are a few tips I developed over the years to make it a bit more manageable:

GEAR UP
No matter how careful you are, they will grab you and it is up to you to make sure that what they really grab is fabric and not skin. One secret is doubling up on all clothing:

Wear a long sleeve shirt that is closer fitting to the body and then cover that with a loose, thick long sleeved jacket or work-shirt of a very thick material (chamois/felt/padded “lumberjack” jacket etc.). Thrift stores usually have some on hand as they are not in demand fashion items that fly off the rack.  Same with pants, if you can manage a pair of pants inside a pair of heavy jeans or coveralls that is your best bet. Heavy, thick-soled ankle-high boots are also a huge plus. Gloves of stiff, thick leather (again I double up on gloves and even then I still get stuck). Goggles are a MUST! You can also choose to wear a hat to protect your head and a mask or handkerchief to help cover your face. The less skin exposed the better.

TAKE THE ZEN APPROACH
If you have ever practiced Tai Chi then I can explain handling berry vines is like practicing push-hands with a Grand Master: KEEP YOUR TOUCH VERY LIGHT AND BE WILLING TO GIVE. The only thing that may have a chance of taking on the vines themselves is the sole of your boots or your tools. I avoid touching them with my hands at all and when I do my grasp is feather-light. If a vine swings towards you, give way or step back. In hand to hand combat, the vines will most likely win.

 

HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS
Your #1 tool is a hard-tined garden rake. This is what you will use to do the actual handling of the vines as if you had an extra-long arm with metal fingers.

Second is your cutting tool. This can be a hedge trimmer (which only really works well if you really know how to handle it), long handled loppers (which only really works well if you have two people working) or, my favorite cutting tool for vines: a garden machete.

Tool Warning! First, always use extreme caution when using these tools. Second warning: when buying a garden machete check the thickness of the blade. A blade that is too thick will not slice well and is a pain in the tush to sharpen. You say you don't know how to sharpen a blade? Then you should probably grab a friend to handle loppers for you while you rake. It's more fun that way anyway.

TECHNIQUE (or everything I needed to know about trimming berry vines I learned in Tai Chi)
The most important thing to understand about taking out these thorny buggers is to use their own nature against themselves. The thorns cling to and clutch at everything so use that characteristic to press and roll them into compressed balls (or mini-bails).



Chris rolling a vine bail while I cut.

To start, I will throw the garden rake high into the hedge and use the weight of the tool and down-ward force to compress it down and away from where the vines originate from the ground. I press them down with the rake and sometimes the sole of my boot until they are so caught up in each other that there are no loose thorny arms swinging about. Then I cut the stems a few inches from the base. I then roll the big mass into a dense ball and will use either the garden rake or a pitchfork to move the mass where I want it. It will feel awkward at first but after a couple of rolls you will get the idea.



Vines have grown through the cement wall adding
yet more cracks to the now defunct Koi pond.

FINISH IT OFF

Once you have all the vine’s “arms” removed you may decide to take them out altogether. Blackberry vines are incredibly invasive and swift-growing. If you do not fully remove the roots you will have a large hedge again in no time. (Also prepare yourself to have to spot check regularly to tackle any new shoots that always seem to come up.) To remove roots I know of two ways: my preferred method is to dig out as much of the roots as I can and practice vigilance on removing upstarts. Some folks I know used to use this herbicide that you paint onto the cut ends of the vine stumps and it is supposed to go into the plant and kill it that way. Honestly, I don’t even know if that stuff is still available because I just like to dig the roots out. The fewer chemicals I deal with the more I like it.

The aftermath. Okay, a lot more clean-up
is still left but it was getting dark. :-)

In the end, it is always a lot of hard work and I will admit that there were four of us tackling the job that day and I was only able to handle about an hour or so of the day-long project before I became totally depleted. It was very hard because I grew up with a farm-girl mentality and love jumping into this kind of stuff and going at it all day. It makes you feel alive. But my body has changed now and I was forced to stand by and pick up garbage (ugh!) while the others got to do most of the “playing” with the vegetation. (Have I mentioned that CFS SUCKS?!?!! Yes? Well, sorry for the redundancy.)

So here are my tips on clearing out the pernicious vines but if all else fails I know a guy you can call and he will be only too happy to remove them for you. For a price.

Next Blog: “How is your CFS doing?”

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