undergrowth removal

[pistonbroke1957]

Evening All.
I have an area in my garden of about 45sq metres, which is covered in large weeds,blackberry bushes and patchy grass,which i want to turn to lawn. I have slashed everything down twice now with a brushcutter and sprayed on some weedkiller (sic) reccommended by a garden centre.
Yes,you've guessed it.it's all back with a vengeance !
Is there a product that can be sprayed on that will just kill everything,even if nothing new could be planted for some time afterwards.I can fence off the area so it would'nt be a problem.
Can't be specific about the type of weeds and undergrowth.You could easily write what i know about plants etc on a postage stamp !
Cheers

[wine~o]

Having had to get rid of a couple of dozen brambles over the last couple of years....I've yet to find a weed killer that works.

Dig them up...make sure you get all the roots out.

The other weeds are likely to be more responsive to a good quality weedkiller...(Unless it's Japanese knotweed..google it) apply every 2 weeks until none left.. cover the ground with plastic sacks till september....october...november..important to exclude light. Do not under any circumstances rotivate the area sounds extreme I know, bot from your description you do have a severe weed problem.

[Steve the Gas]

Get some hens and a coop - they will clear every living thing off by Autumn, that's where back garden went

[pistonbroke1957]

Thanks for the advice. In my ignorance i was actually thinking about rotavating.Any reccomendations re weedkiller ?

[wine~o]

Never found any weed killer that was 100% effective on brambles, hence the advice to dig them out (Including all the roots , leave one little piece of root in...) hence the advice not to rotivate, all you do is break up the roots of the brambles , multiplying the number of plants.

Most systemic weed killers on the market are pretty much of a muchness to be honest, unless you go down the route of 'industrial weedkiller' (Google for suppliers).

[Steve the Gas]

Glyphosate or 'round- up' should do it.

[Geewizz]

Systemic weedkillers like Roundup will not clear the area because you will have dormant root pieces from your previous attempts to clear up.

The only method I would recommend is to go through the soil by hand and pick out every root and every piece of root. It may sound extreme but it is well worth doing because it's the only way to clear the bed. Putting in the hard graft at the beginning and diligently clearing the plot now will save you hours and hours of endless weding in the future. There's no point in planting in an infested bed if the plants are just going to be overrun by weeds coming up through their root systems. Once they get entangled in the plants you want to keep you'll be fighting a losing battle to save your planting.

Alternatively, you could dig out all the soil in the bed and replace it with sterilised topsoil. That's an expensive and wasteful exercise though.

[Bob225]

deadfast Sodium Chlorate works wonders

next door has 8 foot high garden of brambles with a mix of other bell vine and creeper in it 10-14 days after spraying in was dead and flat

i found mixing it with warm water speeds things up no end

the downside is it kills everything it touches

[Geewizz]

If you use sodium chlorate, don't expect to grow a lawn on the contaminated soil.

[pistonbroke1957]

Thanks for all the advice.Sodium Chlorate sounded good, but i want a lawn when all the brambles are gone. Guess i'll be investing in a garden spade and a large bottle of RADOX !!!