Bramble in the Jungle

There was a little bit of suspense when Ms F took away the curtain to reveal the state of her mum's garden. 'You won't believe', said Ms F, 'They grew so quickly! The last time I'd been here, those brambles weren't that tall. And they never had fruit before!'. Indeed, Mrs G's back garden had been taken over by blackberry plants that just started to bear fruit. 'We've seen worse', Kash assured Ms F, 'We'll sort it out'.

Ms F brought us a pair of shears, a pair of loppers and two pairs of bramble-proof gardening gloves. Even Sevan was impressed by them. 'Chopping the brambles is not a problem', Kash made an observation, 'It is packing them away.' Ms F then produced four big garden waste bags, three plastic containers and a couple more sturdy bags. That was what we call a prepared beneficiary!

We began the very satisfying task by attacking the brambles hanging from the fence: Kash standing on a bench with loppers and Sevan on the ground with shears. At some point, the loppers got blocked and wouldn't move. Ms F was prepared even for that scenario. With a few sprinkles of WD-40, the stubborn tool was working smoothly again!

It was a shame to chop down the branches with sweet fruit on them, so we tried to eat enough blackberries to not feel so wasteful. The rest turned into jam or even juice under our feet. But the brambles had to go. We chopped down even the thick stems growing in between Mrs G's and her neighbour's fences.

Without digging out the roots, the brambles will surely grow again. We made the effort to bring more light to the garden and uncover the spots where the bramble stems grew out of the ground. Ms F can now literally see the root of the problem and plan the course of action. We are hoping for another GoodGym mission for her mum!