Removing Blackberry Bushes Without Chemicals

Blackberry bushes (particularly the Himalayan species) are a horribly invasive plant in the Northwest. Getting rid of these thorny monsters can be difficult, but since their main goal in life is to choke the life out of all of your other plants, it is necessary to remove them.

Perhaps the most common way to get rid of those blackberries is using pesticides. However, using pesticides can cause serious problems with the water supply in your area. Any pesticides you use will end up in the ground in the local watershed. If that contaminated water ends up in a nearby river (the Willamette, for example) can kill fish and other wildlife. It's best to try to kill them without pesticides. You have a few options if you are battling berry bushes in your yard.


You can:

1) Hire a landscaping company to hack them down, particularly in early spring when they start their growth spurt, and have them come back periodically until the bush dies. Make sure they do not use pesticides!

2) Cut them down to the ground in early spring, and then mow over them frequently until they die,

3) Cut them down to the ground and then dig up the "crowns" or clusters of roots, and

4) If you have a lot of room and goats, use the goats! They love to eat blackberries.

The final and most critical step is to plant something where the blackberries are currently residing. Make sure it is a native plant (check our previous blogs for a list, consider a native berry plant) and replace the old with the new. This helps inhibit the invasive species and encourages native plants to thrive!

Check out this article for the whole story: http://www.pesticide.org/pubs/alts/blackberry/blackberries.html