Curation Part 1: Blackberries

Cleaning up with grit, muscle and Beyonce.

Plants, like people, are able to grow and flourish when they are unburdened by the things that no longer serve them. Unfortunately, plants, like people, are always in the process of accumulation that could hinder their growth: decay, disease, remnants from previous seasons or encroachments of an aggressive neighbor.

Removing what’s no longer serving allows for a better chance at healthy and intentional growth. Yes, you could simply call this pruning, but I learned from my friend and farming mentor that it’s not just about what needs to be removed, but more importantly about what you want to keep.

Enter: Curation.

Our farm is a former dairy and for nearly 100 years grazing cattle kept down many of the grasses, scrub and brambles by either eating them or stomping them into the earth. However, grazers have not been on this land for at least a decade which means that those grasses, scrub and brambles are thriving in many, many unwelcome places.

Two major offenders are blackberries and scotch broom. Both are invasive, which means that they are competing with and pushing out native plants and species.

Our goal is curate the land so that native species can flourish which means so these invasives gotta go, starting with the blackberries.

On the flat, blackberry vines have started to crawl up the barns, with some reaching over 10 feet. On the hill, they are pushing up over smaller trees and shrubs. So what do we do? We curate! With a fleet of loppers, pruners, pullers, tarps, rakes, leather gloves, canvas sleeves and, of course, Beyonce [on repeat].

To remove the blackberries from the barn took me (in order): Cowboy Carter, Renaissance and Homecoming. The section below was purely Homecoming. The roots are on the left of the cement and had crawled about 8 feet across the concrete. I started by lopping the vines and then using a tool called “Grandpas Weeder” to pull the root balls. The pop of the root giving is a highly satisfying result.

Here’s a photo of me in the afterglow of the aforementioned pop with a root ball on the end of the Grandpa tool.

Not all of my efforts have been successful however. I just found one blackberry plant that was producing several 15 foot long canes, each thicker than my finger that were together swallowing a young plum tree whole. None of my tools could cut through the cane. Apparently I need a machete. So stay tuned for some future bushwhacking.

So there you have it! The start of our curation and a great beginning to the new year.