“A silence where you interact with your thoughts is also a sacred act, a way of owning your interior being. Sometimes you need to wade through your thoughts in order to let them settle.”
– Heather McRae-Woolf
Brambles, producing delicate flowers in spring and juicy fruit in summer, are mostly a web of thorns growing in all the wrong places on the land. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure there is a right place for them to grow. Their long tendrils can destroy stone walls and completely envelop wire fences.
Along our access road an avenue of brambles encroach on the narrow track every spring. To one side our land, to the other fallow land belonging to absent, uninterested neighbours oblivious of the bramble bushes slowly growing to monstrous sizes. Two and a half weeks ago I decided to declare war against the bramble bushes on our side of the road.
The rickety wire fence hidden by the tangle of thorns rendered the use of a strimmer useless. That said, someone braver than I would most probably still opt for that approach, but it leaves a ripped up mess of cuttings both big and small that still have to be dealt with. Not to mention the strength required and noise produced by the strimmer.
The approach I opted for only involved two pairs of secateurs, one large, one small, and an immense amount of patience.
Surrounded by birdsong and fresh air, I methodically worked my way first along the stone wall, and then the wire fence. Sometimes the work was backbreaking, mostly it was pleasurable. It allowed my thoughts to roam far and wide, before returning to the beauty surrounding me, as I kept snipping and pulling at the dead wood and juicy shoots.
Uncertain of how to deal with the remains I asked the advice of a friend, who recommended I burn it, as the stems are too tough for a chipper. She, like Michael and I, aren’t keen on burning, but she explained that she douses the remains with water to create charcoal (biochar) that she then adds to her compost heap. I was immediately sold on that approach, so I cut the brambles to specific lengths, carefully creating small bundles that would be easy to transport with the wheelbarrow to where they will be fed to the eventual bonfire we are planning.
Portuguese Words:
paciência – patience
trabalho – work
cerca de arame – wire fence
parede de pedra – stone wall
Written by: Jolandi
Looks like a lot of work!
We have a lot in Spain. The berries tend to be small and seedy but go well with apple (or quince) in a crumble.
blackberry – amora (the fruit at least)
bramble is zarza in Spanish and may be sarça in Portuguese.
quince – marmela from which you make marmelada!
A crumble sounds like a great way to use them, Trevor. Let’s see how many survive . . . 🙂 – Jolandi
Brambles do make for delicious jam.. 😉
They do, Lisa. My sister who lives in Galicia, Spain makes jam every year. Maybe I’ll give it a try as there are plenty of brambles still on the land. – Jolandi
Sounds like they gave you a good amount of exercise — something many people around the world, including me, badly need as we’ve been confined to our spaces for almost a year now. Where you live now seems to be a perfect place to be during the pandemic, Jolandi.
It was the best exercise, Bama. I always think it is much better when one gives the whole body a good workout while achieving a satisfying end result, instead of just doing exercise for the sake of exercising. Yes, I am so grateful that I’m now on the quinta, especially with the current tight lockdown here in Portugal, as I can pretend the world is almost normal. And I must admit that I love the solitude at the moment. – Jolandi
What a lot of work, but how rewarding to see the results. Getting out in the fresh air and doing yardwork can be peaceful. Job well done!
Thank you, Terri. It really was rewarding, not to mention the fact that it is a great antidote for grey winter weather. – Jolandi
That is a JOB! I know what you mean about just mindlessly doing a chore like this and letting the mind wander, but these look like they’d need a little focus in some of the snarlier patches. The photos where you can really see your progress are fun to see. Well done!
Thanks, Lexie. You are right, there were definitely a couple of patches where I had to pay attention to what I was doing. The brambles did fight back, and there were a couple of times I cried out in unexpected surprise and pain. 😉 I haven’t felt as satisfied and rewarded for completing a job as I did after this one in a long, long time. – Jolandi
Brambles! What amazingly resilient plants they are! They can continue to grow at much lower temperatures than most other plants and in temperate zones that means they are growing almost all year round. They quickly take over hedges and scrubland if they are left to themselves, as you have found.
You have certainly done a wonderful job in clearing that trackway, Jolandi! This time of year is the best time for getting rid of brambles and controlling them. The roots of many of the plants are fairly shallow and when the soil is wet from winter rain and snow they can be pulled up.
This kind of work is excellent for letting the mind wander and for sorting out problems. I love many land-maintenance and gardening jobs because I always feel so much calmer and happier afterwards!
It is clear that you know brambles all too well, Clare. Yes, they get out of hands so quickly. We had to resort to diggers to pull out enormous tangles of them that could have swallowed us whole about two years ago. Some of the leftover roots are growing again and has to be dealt with, but a combination of handpruning and strimming should get rid of them without too much effort. Like you say, one has to try to get at the roots, and we’ve had some wonderful rain, which makes it much easier.
I love that you are a kindred spirit when it comes to land-maintenance and gardening jobs. It falls in the same category for me as chopping up veg in the kitchen. A seemingly mindless task that most people would avoid, but I love, as I find it very meditative. – Jolandi
Whew. A lot of work, but rewarding and nice to see your progress.
The reward of seeing the difference makes all the hard work worth it. 🙂 – Jolandi
Hello Jolandi,
This must be very labor-intensive work, indeed! I am ashamed to say that pulling weeds and pruning some tiny brushes in our backyard is enough to make me look forward to a coffee break 😉 So happy to see that you are continuing to make progress, one step at a time. As always, hope you are both staying safe and well.
Very labour intensive, but I must confess that it is very addictive. My body usually screams at me afterwards, though. 😉 – Jolandi