Organic Blackberry Removal
This post offers you my proven method for removing blackberries without the use of toxic chemicals, and keeping them maintained for the long haul.
Ugh… so when you have this pictured below where do you begin?
Let's start with the tools you will need to do the job.
- Durable Gloves
- Lopers
- Hand Pruners
- Heavy Duty Rake
- Spade Shovel
Get your gloves on, strap those hand pruners to your belt for easy access and jump in. When you get into the patch use your loppers to cut the main stalks down to the ground and hand pruners as needed. After you've done a significant amount of that, use your heavy duty rake to pull the cuttings away. This will leave you with a section of stems leading to the roots. It's important to leave a stem you can grab by hand so that you can easily pull the roots out. After you've done this, get your spade shovel and dig up the stem and root patches.
What are the benefits - why would you want to do this organically?
- When you do your blackberry removal this way you will be simultaneously aerating the soil when you are digging out the roots. This is one of the major benefits of invasive plants like blackberries and switch grass (also known as crabgrass) we often overlook.
- Plants with a running/webby based invasive root system tend to be working your soil with it's invasive root system. And then when you go to remove it - BOOM - you've got great soil to work with!
What about maintenance for the long haul?
- The best way I've found to phase blackberries out of the areas you don't want them is to teach them to stay out. You can do this by planting what you want to grow there after you've done your initial cleanup, combined with consistently digging out the new shoots that come up - always at the root.
- If you don't plant anything there, or train wildflowers and natives to come in, you may need to maintain the area more often because you won't have anything else getting established to smother out and reduce new blackberry growth.
Here's what one man who's been working with me for over a year now, almost exclusively doing blackberry removal and maintenance, had to say upon completion of his initial cleanup project. Pictured below is an area I cleared, laid cardboard, and finished with mulch.
"Brian and his crew member worked very efficiently in removing a large section of blackberry roots from my yard. They also did an excellent job of cleaning up following this work, which I believe is particularly important in blackberry work.
Brian gave me an estimate with a high and low amount and finished the work within his estimate. I enjoyed having him work in my yard and plan to use his services again."
David Beaudoin
Ashland, OR
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