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I've dug out tonnes of roots over time from all the big plants and now it's got to the point where I'm ready to think about turf or seeding. Trouble is that there are loads of little sprouts of what look like brambles coming up.
Any top tips?
I'm going to be rotavating and raking and maybe bringing in top soil as well.
grazon. Apply when in leaf and not too dry. You'll need to leave it a bit though.
http://www.dowagro.com/uk/products/prod/grazon90.htm
That looks like serious stuff! Looks like I might be able to rotavate, dig out what I can of the roots and potentially use that later in the year if anything grows though the new grass. If I've read it right, it won't kill the grass?
Carefully?
proper stuff for brambles, dock nettles etc. Wont kill the grass unless you put it down when it's too dry as then the grass will take it in in desperation.
TBH a good layer of topsoil before you put the turf down and it should suppress the bramble enough.
Anything that will kill brambles effectively will definitely take out the grass as well. Ideal solution is to leave the area after you've prepared it, let it grow during the summer and zap it a couple of times with Glyphosate weedkiller. You'll find it in shops as Roundup but very expensive so go to an agricultural place and buy bulk.
Not an expert, but if you don't want to leave it, I doubt brambles will survive weekly mowing so should just die off as the shoots get cut
There is something that you can use to nuke the whole area from orbit and disappears in a day or two. But the plants have to be in leaf. What's it called..? It was very common though in B&Q. Maybe it's roundup, maybe something else.
Am I helping?
I used some B&Q weed killer stuff mixed with some proper nasty stuff the previous house owner had left me, to kill off the brambles/nettles/grass in my garden before rotovating it (it would have been nice to dig it all over and remove the bramble root but I didn't have the time).
Then grass seeded it and it all sprung up nicely the end of last year, the brambles are now trying to break through again but I'm told if you can keep mowing them down they'll eventually die.
If you can afford to wait for a few months, just cover the whole area with a few big tarps. No light = no weeds (or grass or anything else....).
Surely that will either just delay germination or the brambles will force through it..?
A gardener friend of mine killed some weeds in his back garden by sticking some of the weed in a jar of poison.
The weed then sucked it up and died a painful death.