Thorny issue

Azalea, can you tell me please if the weedkiller system you described affects huge ivy plants with stems as thick as a man's wrist? If so, I shall do this to any that reappears poking through my wooden fence.

Yesterday my sons went into the thicket (my thicket) next to my fence and chopped, cut, and tore the ivy which is forty feet up hawthorn trees and mixes itself up with my summer jasmine. The ivy has also become tree ivy in places. We took care to wait until birds have fledged.

My son relieved my ash tree of its ivy burden by cutting the thick stems that entirely swaythed the tree trunk. The stems are still up the tree 50 feet up but the leaves don't take long to wither. just a few days, so we think the ash tree is already happier.

My neighbour also lets this happen and I welcome the climbing flowers like honeysuckle cascading over. There is a small gap under the fence and I push my securers through and cut the stems of the offending plants close to the ground. The brambles and ivy will die off then-on the neighbour's side- and they will never know that they haven't died off naturally! Or just get on a step ladder and cut them off flush with the top of the fence on your side.

On the other side of my garden wall there used to be a field, before houses were built on it decades ago. One of those houses was beautifully kept when we first moved in here, but it changed hands (again, many years ago) and the new owners spent a lot of time making alterations and improvements indoors before touching the garden. As a result, the dormant bramble seeds germinated and the plants took over, leaned over the wall and dropped fruit generously on my side. Before that I never had any brambles, but from then on they are for ever appearing in between plants, even on the side of the garden well away from their ancestors. Some of them must come from fruit dropped from the originals, others I blame on birds carrying the seeds a distance. Most are definitely seedlings, and it takes constant attention to remove them. The garden over the wall is now well tended - there is even a six-foot fence, probably to keep out MY weeds.

I didn't know that.

I think new bramble plants DO grow from dropped blackberries. I get little seedlings with their own roots, not attached to any runners, from seeds dropped by birds (not sure which end of the bird drops them) They are a damn nuisance growing among established plants, and invisible until they are big enough to pop their heads up. By then they are hard to dig up.

By the way, Azalea , I don't think you meant "Regarding the brambles it’s a great relief to know they won’t grow from blackcurrants." as blackcurrants produce blackcurrant plants. It was probably predictive text!

Thank you. It’s her fence. She loves her garden, but I think she has a problem with her eyesight, which is one reason I don’t feel I can tell her.
The ivy clings to the fence so I can spray that easily enough although I have to be vigilant. Regarding the brambles it’s a great relief to know they won’t grow from blackcurrants. Again, many thanks. Btw, hope this tip is of use - where I find a weed I can’t easily remove by hand I stuff as many of the leaves as possible into a tube such as a topped and bottomed lemonade bottle, secure in place with a small cane, then spray weed killer into the tube and leave it for a day or two. Kills the weed but doesn’t harm nearby plants

Someone to do it

How can she not realise she is growing ivy and brambles?

I think you need to tell her so that she can tackle them or get somewhere to do it. They will get mixed upon her roses and clematis too.
Brambles will not grow from dropped blackberries but they will throw out runners.

We have an ivy problem which will have to be tackled for good in the autumn, unfortunately it grows very rapidly into a neighbour's garden so needs constant chopping back.

Who owns the fence? If it's your fence I think she should no be growing anything up against it without your permission. If she owns the fence she can grow whatever she likes on it Maybe she likes brambles and ivy.

Brambles and ivy are real pests if they get out of control. I am having my own troubles with overgrown ivy right now.