Blackberry bushes on no man’s land

[WreckingBallbyBruce]

Having saved hard for years, I’m finally about to get my garden paved and turfed to make it more accessible.

My issue is that there is a small piece of land which is surrounded on all sides by gardens, with no access. I have hopefully attached a diagram - the black is my garden, green and yellow are neighbours gardens, with the red area at the bottom of my garden the blackberry bushes. There are also gardens at the other side, there is literally no access to this small area - it’s about one metre wide by 5m in length.

Is there any way I can get rid of these bushes - they’re huge, poking through my fence and as I’m a wheelchair user, I can’t easily reach the top to keep chopping them back!

Pic is under review, will hopefully be there soon!

Speak to all your neighbours and ask if they are happy for you all to clear the area. You could share the cost and If someone has an easy to remove fence panel it will make the job easier.

I would suggest if it's bramble and you are in a wheel chair see if your neighbours would all club together to pay for someone to do it. Bramble (I speak from experience!) Is really unpleasant to get rid of and requires specially strong gloves etc and it's also really pernicious and will grow if you leave anything behind. It will also pull down fences (don't ask me how I know lol) and will invade all the gardens if nothing is done so they are all incentivised to sort !

Surely it must be owned by someone? Was it an old access path?

thanks all. I probably should have mentioned we’re all social housing, so can’t very easily remove fence panels without permission and landlord doesn’t want to know.

I don’t know my neighbours well enough to ask them to club in. I think it’s going to be a case of getting someone in a few times a year to chop them back. Or maybe extra strength weed killer

You can't legally do anything to someone elses land without their permission.

You can go to the land registry if it's not your social housing co and find out if you want to do something.

By all means pay a gardener or ask a friend to trim them at your fence, but please don't poison them or rip them out. They'll be home to wildlife and insects, as well as providing berries for the birds to eat. Small undisturbed patches like that are so important.
Are you going to plant any shrubs or raised beds for yourself to potter with?
Don't forget to post pictures when it's done!

Oh I’m definitely not using anything on them, if nothing else they have provided me with enough fruit to make a few jars of jam

The land registry is a good shout, I’ll give that a go thanks.

Land registry is the only way to go as you can only cut up to your property boundary legally. I've worked in conservation and seen people be taken to court for "damaging another persons property" including a local council taking a resident to court for removing brambles growing into their garden.

I love a blackberry jam especially paired with mint, goes great with sweet and savoury.

Weed killer on blackberries? really unnecessary. don’t do it