We spent a couple of days last week clearing the ever encroaching bramble, furze, blackthorn and briars from around the edges of one of the fields. The brambles and other members of the weed family had pulled down quite a few rotten fence posts. We used loppers, strimmer and blade and the trusty 4 prong pike and the digger and dumper to clear the weeds. I think we filled at least eight dumpers in the process. Here's me thinking that manual labour was the name of a Spaniard.
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| Nearly done. you can see the brambles next to the Smalley digger and the new fence posts lying on the ground waiting for us to knock them in the ground. |
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| Finished clearing. The brambles must have taken over ten foot of the field in places. It could do with a run of a rotovator and setting some grass seed and fertilizer. There's always something needs doing on a smallholding. |
I suppose the next job would be to rotovate the brambles out and set it with grass seed and fertilizer. Or I take the lazy farmer method and leave it for the grass and weed seeds to grow back? This time I will make sure we cut the edges of the field with the tractor and topper and they won't grow back.
I am going looking at an old tractor rotovator today at a tractor breakers today. The spades are OKish and it needs sandblasting and spraying and pulling apart and oiling and putting together again. The scrap man says I can have it very cheap. Number one son reckons we will fix it up very cheap. I am very tempted and it will be a good blog subject. Shall I buy the rotovator or should I not?
How do you deal with weed problems on your smallholding or allotment? My cattle nibble at the blackberry leaves now and again and Ivy is said to be a great tonic for them. Wish they weren't so choosy and ate the brambles back. I could get a man with a quad and weed licker/sprayer to kill them for me. Or I could do it my self with a knapsack. Or I could hack away like we have done above? Do you use weedkiller for brambles and rushes or do you live with them? Soft rushes are a curse on most farms these days. Didn't see one clump when we went to Portugal last year. Suppose they wouldn't grow if we had good weather all year. Fantastic weather here at the moment.
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