I'm back on Dave's.

Hi all! I've just rejoined Dave's after a few years hiatus. I used to live in Southern California and had a amazing garden. Down there you just stick something in the ground and it grows. I now live in South Beach Oregon. We have 1/3 acre of land and when we moved in it was completely overgrown with blackberries. 10 years of growth. Big suckers. We hired a blackberry slayer had the yard cleared and next step is to kill and dig up the gigantic roots, rototill everything and plant some groundcover to help choke out the blackberries.. This is going to be a long process, but I'm so excited to have my own garden again. I'm going to need lots of advice about what to grow in this totally new (for me) climate. We are about 450 feet from the beach.

So first questions; Got any advice on killing blackberries? My plan right now is to cut into them and pour vinegar on the roots, then dig them out. And, does anyone here live right next to the ocean? Any advice on groundcovers?

Looking forward to meeting you all!

Lynne

Welcome Lynne! This can be a great climate too in its own way, although rainy in the wintertime, our wonderful, well anticipated summers are not too hot. We have a wide range of successful plants, and some things that would have been harder in So. California will be easier here, like bulbs and fruit trees and bushes that require a period of winter chill.

About the blackberries...digging them out by the roots seems like it can be effective, although also labor intensive. The vinegar sounds like a good idea to me, to slow then down, but I have not tried that myself, so have no actual experience to share. I do have a large patch of blackberries in an out-of-the -way section of my place, and some day I will have to tackle it. I have considered goats!! There is a local company that brings a cadre of goats in, sets up fencing, and lets them do the blackberry removal. I think it is called 'rent a ruminant' There might br something similar where you live.

Hi mauryhillfarm, thanks for the welcome. I'm so glad to back here on Dave's. I've heard of the rent-a-goat thing, it sounds great. We've already cut down all the blackberry branches though, so there wouldn't be anything for them to eat!

I'm hoping that climbing roses will do well here, because I love the heirlooms. Lavenders too I think will do well. I like a rather wild garden.

Welcome, Lynn. Coastal Oregon---you should be able to grow almost everything you grew in Southern California, except for the tropicals. You have a nice, maritime, temperate climate. Things that need a lot of heat to bloom, however, will be slow to bloom. And it's harder to grow really sweet tomatoes on the coast. But you can grow lettuce 365 days a year there, that's for sure.

I get my roses from Heirloom Roses in St. Paul, Oregon. I mail order from them. Fantastic quality.

Blackberries---I would get out the shovel, and think of it as exercise. Hopefully, you can bust it out in about a month. 1/3 acre sounds manageable. Now would be the best time to do it. Good luck!

I love Oregon. Welcome!

Summerkid (another DG member) lives near the Oregon Coast, but I think she is a bit higher up in the hills, not right on the ocean. It must get pretty exciting there where you live when a winter storm rolls across the Pacific. How nice to be able to walk directly from your house to the beach.

Welcome Lynne, Don't know much about coastal gardening but will look forward to your progress. I fight a few blackberries in my yard. I also have tame blackberries. Got a boysenberry plant from a friend. Will see how that goes. I'm going to take some pictures today to post. Looks like good weather for that project.

Thanks for the welcome all! kosk0025; when I lived in SoCal I ordered heirloom roses from the Antique Rose Emporium. When I moved to Oregon (lived in Troutdale for the last 3 years) I noticed Heirloom Roses in St. Paul. I'm going to be making a trip there as soon as I'm ready to plant! I think it will probably be in spring 2014, there is a lot of clearing and cleaning to do in my yard, building a fence around the property and I'm going to be out of town from mid-April through mid-May which is a drag because I'm so anxious to get the garden going. In the outdoor garden I'll be planting mostly flowering plants; will be building a greenhouse for the edibles. I'll be keeping everyone updated as to what I have success with. I'm guessing artichokes will probably do well here too.

Mauryhiillfarm: Yes, it's AMAZING being able to walk to the beach from our house! It's something I've always dreamed of. We can see and hear the ocean from our place too.

Willowwind2: I'll probably keep some of the blackberries growing along the property perimeters. They are pests, but also delicious!

That's true and so good for you.

Lynn, I am about an hour north of you, just off Hwy 18 going toward Portland. And yes, since I am about 500 feet up & about 6 miles inland, my climate is much milder, or at least less extreme, than yours.
You are welcome to come visit.
I've found that once the brambles are cleared, it doesn't take much to keep them down. We just went through & clipped them at the ground & either mow or walk through with the pruners once in awhile. As you've probably noticed, they don't like sun so patrol the woodland edges & you should be fine.

Hi summerkid; thanks for the reply. I know exactly where Rose Lodge is, we looked at a house for sale up Slick Rock Creek Rd. I'd love to visit sometime! I look forward to new gardening friends here. I'm going to Louisiana for a month in a couple of weeks, so perhaps sometime this summer we'll be able to meet up.

I discovered yesterday that there is an old clematis that was hidden for years under blackberries, and now it's sprouting leaves. Neighbor across the street was so happy, she says it's two different color plants and that they used to be spectacular. Also, a hydrangea is popping up from a spot we cleared. I love that we are giving the old garden a chance to rebloom! Apparently someone was an avid gardener here years ago and I'm looking forward to all the surprises I have in store.

As to the blackberries, I agree, I don't think it will be anything I can't handle. I'm going around and cutting the huge roots and pouring a mixture of vinegar and citra solv on those; then we'll dig them up. The runners I'll just be vigilant with.

The Rent-a-Ruminant folks are pretty cool, and I've seen pictures of what they can do. If you've cut your blackberry down, it _will_ grow back up until you get the roots out, and those young shoots are going to be more attractive to goats than the old stuff. Goats will eat blackberry, but they will eat all other tasty things first! I am renting a property with an old orchard on it, and someone brought in goats before I moved in. The goats at the bark off the old trees first before they considered the blackberry at all. :-

I'm up Slick Rock Creek!!! After it turns into Boulder Creek.

I found this article by Ann Lovejoy. She is a local plant expert. She says this about getting rid of blackberries. Blackberries develop thick storage roots deep in the soil. These support new growth until it matures, when it can replenish the roots through photosynthesis. We can deplete the storage root by repeatedly removing young foliage before it matures. To leach as many nutrients as possible from those storage roots, let new shoots develop until the soft green leaves turn dark and dull (usually May).
That's when they begin replenishinbg the root, so at that point, cut all shoots as close to the ground as possible. Repeat with the next batch of shoots)usually July-August), and cut again in October or Novembe. This exhausts the plants and within a few seasons, even a big stand of blackberries will be gone I intend to do this and see what happens.
Sounds like you looked at summer's house.

This message was edited Apr 5, 2013 2:21 PM

This message was edited Apr 5, 2013 2:24 PM

Yeah, I'm wondering that too! When was this house-hunting expedition, L? (The house was for sale in late 2008.)
A few other houses have been for sale on the creek side of the road, but mine is the only really nice one; the rest were mostly foreclosures, I think.

When I was (much) younger, we had blackberries popping up under pine trees. The soil was pretty loose, so I could get 1-3 feet of root with every shoot I pulled.

I wore leather gloves and wrapped the stem around the glove and some kind of implement that was a foot or two long. Then I pulled out as much root as would come, using my legs and back, walking along to follow it as it "zipped" its way up out of the soil.

Maybe if I had started earlier each year, and been more consistent, I could have reduced their numbers more. I was mostly just fighting a holding action, since I never got ALL the shoots.

That's how the ivy we pulled was. Zipped right along.

I'm about ready to leave DG. For who knows what reason, my password was deleted or something, I reset that and now nothing is set up how I had it. Frustrating. For the time being, I'll just use the Blog which is my way of keeping track of stuff. Have a good time everyone.

But wait...once I accessed My Tools, everything magically came back. I am easily irritated with random computer glitches.

I know what you mean, but I'm hoping you don't leave. We are getting a few new people. They sound like they are really gardeners and I hope they stay around.

Hmm! Trying to access DG from work with Firefox just failed. First DG said "wrong password", then it said "cookies not enabled" .

Both were innaccurate. And I could see dozens of DG copokies in my browser. Finally I "got in" by using Internet Explorer, so I blamed our IT department for making it hard to use FireFox.

Now I don't know.

I find that DG has more "traffic" than other sites.

Rick, Firefox is messed up for me too where DG is concerned. I finally opened Google Chrome to use it & kind of prefer it as a browser anyway.

Bonehead, don't go away! We need to repopulate the PNW forum. I don't know what happened over the last coupla yearz. Lotz of strong personalities, I suppose.

I'm staying! And firefox works fine for me on a Mac.

Summer, do you have any experience with groundcover thyme in this area? I'd love to use it for large patches around my yard, but not sure how it would do. By the way, I noticed in one of your articles that you are a "would-be artist"; I'm an artist myself, that's what I do for a living. And you are a very good writer.

Lynnala, I am much further north than you, but here's my experience with thyme: it looks great the first couple years, then it tends to get scrappy looking and often dies off in the center. I love it. I would like it to do better. I've had the best luck (so far) with Thymus serpyllum 'Coccineus' which is a creeping red thyme. This photo is from I believe 2 springs ago, softening up the steps to our firepit. Last season it was starting to look more bedraggled, although filled in quite a bit more. I'm open for any suggestions on how to keep it healthy. I don't ever fertilize it, maybe that's what's missing.

That is looking so good.

I have problems with IE on mnay sites, and went to Firefox for that reason. Now DG and FF won 't play nice!

(grumble, grumble)

"The opportunities were insurrmountable."

Maybe it's a lime lover? I wouldn't think herbs need fertilizer.

This message was edited Apr 10, 2013 3:53 PM

thanks, Lynn! Yes, the groundcover thymes work very well for me, but I am 500 feet up & 5 or 6 miles off the coast, as you know, so possibly have much different conditions than you do. Also, they are growing in the front garden, which was built mostly of trucked in, super-soft topsoil & bark dust, so it's pretty ritzy conditions there.

Great plan on the photo op -- always nice to watch a work on progress. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how many people will comment/admire a picture of brown dirt (oooh, aaah). Start a new thread if you like.

I will do that. I think I'll also keep an open journal. Wait until you see the yard as it is now, it looks like a bomb went off! This is my first "forever" home, so I can finally do a garden "for keeps". I used to be on Dave's as "margu" (I just discovered, I didn't remember that) and there are still pics on here of my garden in Los Angeles. I was just renting, but I took a sloped yard full of waist high weeds and turned it into a little paradise. Spent oodles of $$ on plants, lots of antique roses, etc. I was in too big of a hurry when I left to take cuttings, but I still know the people who live there now, so next time I'm down there I'm going to try to get cuttings of all the roses.

I have a whopping 5 roses or so, Lynn, but TONS of other plants. Roughly 50 heirloom rhodies & tons tons TONS of groundcover. You should come by sometime & help yourself. One of my favorites is this mop grass, from which I have a half-dozen starts.

Here is a preview of my "before" pics. This is just a small portion of the yard. All of this was completely buried under blackberries, it's been like digging up a lost civilization! What we thought was a collapsed chicken coop at the bottom of the yard turned out to be a complete cottage with it's own electric meter and plumbing.

Bonehead please don't leave us. We love you and your garden. Your knowledge is needed!

Thank you MLM, it was just a knee-jerk rant on my part, I am easily frustrated with uncooperative computer stuff (recognizing that 'user error' is often the culprit...)