Bramble attack..

Spent about 3 hours this afternoon down at the forest garden attacking the brambles- the third (or is it fourth??) such session over the last few weeks. basically the whole plot had been over whelmed over the last year due a lack of attention, and the brambles had certainly gotten the upper hand, engulfing many of the fruit trees, and making the paths totally inpenetrable. I'd previously slashed back alot of the bramble growth with the Chillington grass slasher, but as I hadn't actually tackled the roots it had simply returned with a vengeance while I'd been away.

But I have a new tool in the armoury now, a proper 'fuck off' mattock that I recently obtained from the BTCV catalogue. I'd checked out a few local garden centres for such an item with no luck, then made a request on Westcliff Freecycle in case anybody had one kicking about they didn't want any more. The only response was from good old Keith Baxter of the Famous Potatoes who offered to lend me one, but by now I had it in my head that I wanted to OWN one... I was chatting to my friend Adrian, a ex Southend lad, fellow Naturewise permaculture teacher and green woodsman who runs Wholewoods about this, again he offered a loan, but this would have meant carting the thing from, then back, to London on the train which didn't appeal, he did however loan me his BTCV catalogue which had exactly the thing I wanted. Unfortunately (or not..) the catalogue also has a really excelent plants section, so also ended up ordering quite a few trees and bushes for the forest garden, mainly wild cherrys, wild plums, bullaces, Sea Buckthorne, hazel, some wild roses, etc, etc. unfortunately I'm a sucker for a plant catalogue... AND I ordered a couple of the BTCV handbooks, the one on Woodlands and the one on Urban projects, which I have to say are excelent. the woodlands one is extremely comprehensive.

So anyway, the new trees are all bundled up and heeled in, ready to plant out just as soon as the bramble clearance is completed and provided the soil isn't too frozen solid, and the mattock has been brilliant for grubbing out the bramble roots, which has been really satisfying and hopefully a more permanent solution than just slashing back the top growth.

The only down side was having that bloody awful '9 to 5' song by Sheena Easton running through my head while I was working, due to a discussion I'd been involved in on the Idler message board earlier in the day; "He works all day, to earn his pay, so we can play, at night..."- so what is "his" job he "Takes the morning train" to??? Arms trader? Vivisectionist? Stockbroker? Sad little office clerk??? These I'm afraid were the thoughts that swam through my sad brain whilst the bramble roots were disapperaing 10 to the dozen! actually another downside was that i took my camera down to the plot hoping to get a few snow shots, but the batteries were flat- but if we get the promised/threatened snowstorms over the next few days maybe I'll be able to stuggle down and get a few 'Narnia' style pics...

At the moment I feel really on top of the project, its like I'm entering 'phase 2' now, especially once all the new wild fruit stock is in.

I also got this blog up and running as well, something I've been meaning to do for a long time, and it was quite interesting to retrieve the old Yahoo groups post below to see my 'summer attitudes'...