Is it safe to compost Bramble?

[Eco-Chic]

I'm clearing an enormous neglected garden of masses of bramble. Can I safely use the green stuff I've hacked back to start a compost heap?

The roots I've managed to dig out will be put out for the council's green waste collection.

[greendean]

brambles are too woody for compost. better to shred and use as mulch or burn them

[SarzWix]

No, they may well root and start growing, plus as Greendean says, they are very woody. Best to stack them to dry out, and then have a lovely bonfire. You can burn the roots of other weeds at the same time, like bindweed, dock, horsetail, dandelion etc., and the ash is good to spread round fruit bushes, or put in the compost.

[rana]

The greener bits of brambles will compost fine if buried under the heap for 9 months or so. I've done it myself and the brambles will completely disappear in a decent heap.

[gojiberry]

To much risk of bits rooting and they do take a while to rot down.

Ian

[smallblueplanet]

Poor ol' bramble!

Oh you meant brambles!

[Gryfon]

Kill...kill...kill! I hate brambles as I'm struggling to get rid of them. So personally wouldn't trust them in my compost bin!

BTW my avatar is a butterfly on a bramble flower in my greenhouse last summer, looks lovely but gets everywhere!

[selfraising]

Kill...kill...kill! I hate brambles as I'm struggling to get rid of them. So personally wouldn't trust them in my compost bin!

BTW my avatar is a butterfly on a bramble flower in my greenhouse last summer, looks lovely but gets everywhere!

I agree! Was sick and tired last year of next doors 'wild garden' bramble creeping through, under and over my fence

[spennysaint]

if only i could kill em. I still have this lots to get rid off

[geoff]

I dealt with brambles a couple of years ago

The really soft green shoots you can chop up fine and compost, but mix it with other compost materials
For the woody stuff and roots put them in a pile in a remote corner and let them dry out. Then in summer, burn them along with any other weeds and rubbish treated in the same way; scatter the ash around the plot, or mix it in the compost bin.
You don't want the brambles or weeds, but don't discard them. They contain the minerals they have taken up from your soil, those you do want

If the brambles have been there a long time, the soil could be a bit lacking. Add general purpose fertiliser, compost or manure

[Lara's lottie]

Unfortunately they really don't compost down, although I added mine to my heap and they didn't root but they also didn't rot so just ended up picking the bits out of the rest of the lovely compost.

Just don't make the mistake I did, all the bramble roots and chunks of yellow clay I dug out of my plot got stacked in a great big pile, which is now just where I want to put a seed bed! So will have to shift them all again, as no matter how much ground you still think you have to clear you eventally get round to it all, so I would have been better off carting them off to the dump or burning them to start with.

Good Luck with the garden

[Gryfon]

It's depressing fighting with them and then them coming back just as vigorous the next year! One weed I'm tempted to use weed killer on just to get rid of them. Can do much because of my back and hubby works.

Have you got a green tip you can take it to?

[snakeshack]

how many have you got,I reccomend agood fire

[Eco-Chic]

'Tis the most enormous garden. I've seen smaller housing estates. It hasn't been touched in years, apparently.

There's an ancient oak tree, which I'm getting a tree surgeon to attend to before it damages the roof of the neighbouring house and two other trees on the perimeter to be pruned also, to prevent damage to nearby buildings.

The rest is brambles, nettles, bindweed and grass with a clump each of Lily of the Valley (tbc), daffs and crocus. There is no compost heap, although I have the ok to start one. I'll take the advice of the majority of people here and keep the brambles out of the compost heap. I'll let the Council's green collection take it and their hotter heap deal with it

If it was my garden I'd take my time and treat it organically. But I'm knocking it into shape for a nice lady who's gardening, until now, has taken the form of strimming and sloshing RoundUp around.

I've spent two hours clearing one small area of brambles to the ground but not dug it out. I estimate there is at least another 8 hours clearance without digging, maybe more. I'm working from the centre of the garden back towards the perimeter fence to try and stop it spreading.

In a couple of weeks when a little grow back is visible I'll try to contact spray it with brush killer. I hope then I can keep it under control with a mixture of brush killer and digging out.

The real work is going to be persuading this lady to grow some fruit and veg. Despite being a country girl originally, she doesn't care for garden produce because of bugs

I think this garden was probably part of a larger formal garden going by the formal ornamental pool I've found and some of the paths which probably divided up formal beds.

I'll try to find out the history of the garden when I'm through pulling thorns out of my fingers

[Creemteez]

Sounds lovely. Good Luck with it all!!