Neighbor destroyed the blackberry bushes

[Soulshine2]

Yesterday i was out mowing our 3.1 acres and i noticed the neighbor hired his annual guy to mow the fence line on his side. The blackberry bushes i picked all the berries from...gone. he had a bobcat skidder with a deck mower attachment and just obliterated anything in his path. Im glad i got to pick them when i did. That was just heart dropping to see. Hopefully theyll come back next year.

 

[MaxStout]

Did he cross the property line onto your side while doing that?

 

[OpenSights]

I have a small raspberry patch in my backyard that I completely cut down last year. Very small yield this year, enough for enjoying while hanging out with my kid.

When it comes to these plants, you’re supposed to cut back any stalks (or whatever the term is) that produced and leave the ones that didn’t.

Honestly he probably did the plants good!

 

[balrog]

Blackberries, as @OpenSights says, are two year plants -- first year grow like a$$onfire, second year flower/berry/die.

And in my humble opinion, what with all the ripped clothing and skin to prove it, blackberries will inherit the earth, lasting long after the zombie apocalypse, the inevitable roach epoch, and even hedge/pachysandra &/or poison ivy.

 

[BruceH]

Yesterday i was out mowing our 3.1 acres and i noticed the neighbor hired his annual guy to mow the fence line on his side. The blackberry bushes i picked all the berries from...gone. he had a bobcat skidder with a deck mower attachment and just obliterated anything in his path. Im glad i got to pick them when i did. That was just heart dropping to see. Hopefully theyll come back next year.

The only way I've ever been able to get rid of blackberries is to pull the root out. If any root is left they will come back. The local parks department cuts them along the city walking trails every few years and they always come back.

 

[Soulshine2]

Did he cross the property line onto your side while doing that?

no , that wasnt the issue.
The issue was I crossed into his property for those precious berries. lol.
Honestly the owner is a 97 yr old man who doesnt leave the house due to I think alzheimers. The property is like 22 acres that wrap around our property and no one picks the berries. These bushes are a few feet over the line. Theyd only go to waste anyway.

 

[beermanpete]

You can grow new berry plants from the roots. Dig up a few root cuttings and plant them in your yard. Or, when the current plant comes back you can grow more from the tips of the canes by burying the tip of a cane in the soil.

 

[Miraculix]

Or, probably the easiest way, just get a flock of pigeons and make them eat the berries.

They will sh*t all over the place and spread the seeds everywhere

 

[balrog]

I say burn them with fire.
Pigeons too.
I'm surprised they aren't already in your yard. Hulking around, bullying the other plants, demanding Doritos and drinking your beer.

 

[Inkleg]

I'm surprised they aren't already in your yard. Hulking around, bullying the other plants, demanding Doritos and drinking your beer.

You're thinking of English Ivy. Damn Brits.

 

[EnglishAndy]

Trust me, they'll be back with a vengeance next year. Cutting them back just makes them mad!

 

[Soulshine2]

Trust me, they'll be back with a vengeance next year. Cutting them back just makes them mad!

I hope so ....I have plans to pick earlier and more now that I know theyre there.

 

[balrog]

You'll have to wait one growth year.
Then you can dive in and kill yourself picking the second year.

 

[Soulshine2]

You'll have to wait one growth year.
Then you can dive in and kill yourself picking the second year.

theres still a fence row he didnt do anything but mow next to,hopefully the sucker growth from that will be my spot next year.

 

[myelo]

Honestly the owner is a 97 yr old man who doesnt leave the house due to I think alzheimers. The property is like 22 acres that wrap around our property and no one picks the berries

Have you thought about making an offer on the property? I'd be worried in a few years his kids inherit the property and sell it and you end up surrounded by a few hundred houses or something. Just a thought.

 

[dmtaylor]

Yesterday i was out mowing our 3.1 acres and i noticed the neighbor hired his annual guy to mow the fence line on his side. The blackberry bushes i picked all the berries from...gone. he had a bobcat skidder with a deck mower attachment and just obliterated anything in his path. Im glad i got to pick them when i did. That was just heart dropping to see. Hopefully theyll come back next year.

They'll come back next year... but it takes 2 years for them to crop, so you won't get much if any berries in 2020. Not till 2021. Go yell at the jerk.

 

[Soulshine2]

Have you thought about making an offer on the property? I'd be worried in a few years his kids inherit the property and sell it and you end up surrounded by a few hundred houses or something. Just a thought.

my wife and I have actually talked about it. It has an old barn on the property and I think Id like to have the pond . Right now the funding isnt there to do it.
I doubt the kids would sell and it turn into housing. Its rural farm and everyone wants to keep it this way.

 

[NGD]

I doubt the kids would sell and it turn into housing. Its rural farm and everyone wants to keep it this way.

You’d be surprised. A developer decides it would be a good place to plop a tract..next thing you know you have a whole bunch of neighbors.

Sure most have seen this, but blackberries...the carnivorous plant

 

[myelo]

Its rural farm and everyone wants to keep it this way.

You would know better than me. But the reason I brought this up is when the guy that owns the 60 acre farm next to ours died, the kids could not agree what to do with it ... and none of them want to keep farming. So they ended up selling it and split the money. A developer offered the most money and as we speak the bulldozers are moving dirt so they can put in about 100 houses.

 

[Soulshine2]

You would know better than me. But the reason I brought this up is when the guy that owns the 60 acre farm next to ours died, the kids could not agree what to do with it ... and none of them want to keep farming. So they ended up selling it and split the money. A developer offered the most money and as we speak the bulldozers are moving dirt so they can put in about 100 houses.

If that ever happened here, I think my wife and I would probably move. Once we left living in a neighborhood and came to the country we could never go back. Its so peaceful and nobody is poking around to see what youre doing

 

[mirthfuldragon]

You're thinking of English Ivy. Damn Brits.

That post needs a trigger warning. Previous owner loved that stuff. I spent probably forty hours pulling it up (15x30 patch), and then another three years hunting down stragglers.