Have you ever got rid of brambles properly?

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

I wonder if I'll ever get rid of them.

I cleared a patch two years ago. Did my best to get rid of the roots. Then really tried last year to stay on top of them, pulling out as many of the roots as possible.

But they're still coming back.

Evil things.

Any tips?

I'm doomed to a life of bramble pulling aren't I

Unfortunately I haven't got any tips but am feeling your pain.
Its the bloody roots - I do my side but then there must be some left in the neighbours garden as the little fuckers get back and they grow like billy oh!

I'm hoping that the more I pull out the roots, the weaker they'll get, but yy, I think they're still creeping from next door.

Grrrrrr.............

I feel your pain too, I am torn though, some years I attack them with as much vigour as I can muster but they just keep coming back, other years I just leave them and we get a fantastic crop of blackberries. I tend to just keep them cut back so they stay at the back of the borders out of reach of the DCS, have given up on eradicating them, nothing seems to work.

"I am torn though"

That's just the problem, sharp little buggers

They're quite satisfying to pull up though. They've got long spindly roots, and if you get the younger ones and give them a tug, you can get six inches of root come out with it. [compulsive]

I feel the same about bindweed, it is annoying stuff, but somehow very satisfying tugging great lengths of it out of shrubs and the roots out of the ground (how hard can you pull without it snapping off)

Bindweed, bindweed the bane of my life.

Every bloody year I dig up my garden in the hopes of getting rid of it. At least with brambles you do get something for it ie blackberries. Bindweed just chokes all my lovely bushes and flowers.

You can get something you paint on the leaves if you catch it early enough but I am never that organised

you need some stump weedkiller for brambles, very poisonous but really works. don't think it's too bad for environment though, as you can cut the bramble down to a stump then just apply it to the cut edge.