Who doesn’t love blackberries? They’re sweet and tart and good for us. BUT, the plants are so thick they grow into a formidable barrier wherever they take root.
Blackberries grow wild in many places, especially on Vancouver Island. They are tough plants with fierce thorns for protection, and they have their prolific growth patterns perfected. The vines that come up from the roots each year will easily take root wherever the end (or middle or any other part) of the vine touches the ground.
It is listed as an invasive plant. No kidding!
The blackberries in front of our hedge had grown so much that they were pulling down our wire deer fence, squeezing through the cedars, and slurping up all the water we were giving the hedge.
I’d had enough.
You can see that locals had made us their dog walk. Why let your dog poop by your own property when you can bring it over to someone else’s and let them do their business there?
Unfortunately, many of the ones who picked up after their dogs then thought it was okay to fling the plastic poop bag into the blackberries. And while they were at it, why not fling any other garbage in there too? After all, out of sight, out of mind. I found a water bottle from a local coffee shop, beer cans, beer bottles, a ball point pen in two parts, candy wrappers,about six poop bags, and even an umbrella.
And one conscientious person didn’t pick up their doggie’s “doo” but left it for nature to take care of. Actually I prefer that, but please, move it out of the way? Then again, when you get hundreds of people bringing their dogs to poop, how is it going to look and smell if no one takes care of that business?
I’m glad I don’t walk there, but it IS in front of my house.
It took me several weeks of cutting, hacking, pulling, cursing, and wincing to get the blackberry vines to let go and to pile them up in heaps.
The blackberries have been cut down,
But new ones come up from the ground,
The old vines have the hardest spikes,
They give a poke that no one likes.
The young vines wrap so easily,
Around my arm, around my knee,
They tangle right into my hair,
They scratch me, and they don’t care where.
I wonder if it’s worth the woe
To cut the vines so they won’t grow.
For every piece I cut away
I get another scratch and pay.
My arms and legs have red designs
They’re scratched with deep and angry lines
And even as the first pain fades
I run to get some more Band-aids.
April 23, 2020 at 2:21 pm
Ouch! Yes, I’ve been scratched many times by blackberry bushes, but I figured the bushes were only trying to protect their sweet fruit. And the bushes weren’t in my yard, but a few blocks away at the edge of another yard, in which the neighbors encouraged us to pick and eat. Not many were brave enough to conquer the branches. But in the summer (in CA, we only got the blackberries in late July/August) I’d pick a bunch and make blackberry buckle. Yum! Worth the scratches. And Henry the dog LOVED them.
That said, I’d be mad as hell if people desecrated my property /trails/and bushes like you’ve described. Good job in clearing them out a bit. You got a good poem out of it too! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 6:52 pm
Well, it’s only our road frontage, but still…. Other people put grass on their frontage and don’t expect people to trample it or throw garbage on it. Good to hear you’ve experienced blackberries!
LikeLike
April 23, 2020 at 2:44 pm
In Alfter, where I used to live for more than 30 years, they make wine and a sweet liquor from them. The wine is called “Rebellenblut”. It’s kind of dangerous: you can get quite drunk without noticing anything – until you want to get up and your legs are like rubber. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 6:52 pm
I bet it’s hard to resist that drink. I’m sure it’s really tasty. Rebel’s Blood is a good name for it.
LikeLike
April 24, 2020 at 9:13 am
Well, it was too sweet for my liking, so I had no difficulties in resisting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 12:57 pm
Maybe it was meant to be more like a liqueur?
LikeLike
April 24, 2020 at 1:50 pm
Not really, as they produced a really sweet liqueur, too, with a much higher alcohol content.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 3:37 pm
Have you ever had Prince of Denmark (cherry) wine?Is it something along those lines?
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 25, 2020 at 7:43 am
No, I don’t even know that wine. I’ve never really had cherry wine. My father used to make it, but at that time I was too young for any kind of alcohol, and ever since I grew up I’ve had wine from grapes only.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 2:48 pm
I love Blackberries! So the trail is not on your property, yet all that trash is in there?
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 6:54 pm
The trash was right in the bushes close to our fence, and right, the trail is just next to the property – too close for my liking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 7:50 pm
Cripes, I’d clean it up! Some folk have zero manners or respect. 🤬
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 11:19 pm
I think most people do pick up, but there are plenty who don’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 11:21 pm
Not cool! 😑
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 3:27 pm
Love the poem! LOL! Sounds like a big job, worse than rose bushes. I can’t believe how terrible people are about trash! It seems to have boomeranged since the 70’s and 80’s when people became conscientious.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 6:56 pm
I’m shocked at what pigs some people are. They go on about being so keen on hiking for their health, talking about saving the environment, and then they behave like that! Hah!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 25, 2020 at 8:29 am
It’s terrible!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 5:56 pm
Hi Anneli, I have gone blackberry picking a few times. The first time I had many scratches on my arms and hands. Future visits I brought gloves and sticks. I do find they are worth the effort. I just now remembered you live on Vancouver Island, so you know some of the “secret” blackberry hiding places. And then the not so secret bushes. Your poem describes blackberries well! Erica
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 6:57 pm
Yes, there are no secrets here, Erica. The blackberries grow everywhere. Good plan about the gloves.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 6:46 pm
Hmmm… can you pile all those cut down bramble pieces on the “trail” to deter dog walking and irresponsible jerks? I have NOOO patience for people who don’t pick up after their dogs!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 7:01 pm
Ha ha, I’d like nothing better, but these people would scream about their rights (not giving a hoot about mine). There’ s a woman in a pink jacket who walks on the road on the other side of our property. She leaves a pink doggie bag in a neighbour’s garden soil at the edge of her property. Maybe she thinks that because it’s pretty pink that makes it okay.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 2:07 pm
I would so follow her home and put the bag in her yard!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 3:42 pm
I did that years ago with someone whose dog always pooped in front of our driveway. The woman walked the dog up to our place (which is that last on a dead end street), the dog would poop, and she would turn around and go back to her place at the bottom of the road. I put the “processed material” in a gardening pot, brought it to her yard, and dumped it at the edge of the road there. After that, several times I watched for her as she started her walk up the road towards us, and each time she saw me she turned around. She knew!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 26, 2020 at 7:24 am
glad you taught her a lesson!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 26, 2020 at 9:46 am
Me too. I thought I’d been subtle, and didn’t make a show of it, but she knew!! Guilt, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 10:47 pm
Blackberries? I love them. But you sure do have to earn them. Oww! And cleaning them out? What an ordeal that must have been!
Those dog people who pick up the poop in a baggie and then throw it in the bushes ARE pigs. Yikes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 11:18 pm
A lot of plastic thrown out for other people to walk by. Don’t they mind walking by it day after day? I agree about the blackberries. They’re sure good but hard to “earn.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 23, 2020 at 11:46 pm
I know the blackberries very well! To clean them out is a huge and painful job. We have them everywhere here too. I also used to have a lot of dogpoop laying around but its getting better every year now. People are getting more careful with the nature. Nice poem!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 6:23 am
I wasn’t sure how widespread the blackberries were throughout the world. They seem to be both a curse and a blessing at the same time. Glad you liked my poem, Ursula. Thank you.
LikeLike
April 24, 2020 at 1:03 am
I love blackberries, but thankfully, I can let someone else do the picking and purchase them at the grocery store. I have no tolerance for litterbugs! Nice poem!
LikeLike
April 24, 2020 at 6:25 am
Thanks for reading, Jill. I agree about letting someone else pick them. I have a deal with the Captain, if he picks them, I’ll make something good out of them. Seems to work well. We can also buy them, but they’re VERY expensive. Danger pay, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 10:06 am
Love the blackberries and totally distracted by the plastic poop bag. Who thought that was a better idea than poo? I don’t get it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Generally nature takes care of it and it either dries and crumbles or gets washed into the ground by the rain, but the problems start when you get masses of people taking their dogs to go poop someplace other than their own home.
LikeLike
April 24, 2020 at 11:48 am
Boy, you are ambitious, Miss A. I can’t even get my butt out there to dig up the few dead plants in my flower garden.
All that trash in those vines would Pi&% me off, too. I’d probably put up a sign like; Warning: camera on site to ticket anyone who leaves trash and doesn’t pick up after their pets. 😉
Hope your scratches and poke heal soon. 💗
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 24, 2020 at 1:02 pm
I’ve thought about a trail camera, but then I think, “What’s the point? The people who leave the garbage wouldn’t be fazed by a camera or by being caught in the act.” So now I’ll try to keep the blackberries down and hopefully discourage the disgusting part of our population from throwing out their non-biodegradable garbage.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 25, 2020 at 10:10 am
Natural blackberries. What’s better than that?
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 25, 2020 at 1:36 pm
I bought some domestic blackberry vines that are thornless. They get huge berries, but the flavour is a bit different. Not quite as nice as the wild ones. So yes, what’s better than the natural blackberries? Nothing.
LikeLike
April 25, 2020 at 5:21 pm
That sounds like it was a lot of hard work to clear. Hopefully that’s the end of messy neighbours .
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 25, 2020 at 6:50 pm
I hope so too. It’s actually not so much neighbours as people from subdivisions WAY down the road where they’ve cut all their trees and are now looking for a tree to walk under.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 26, 2020 at 7:18 am
I have a huge raspberry bush that gets out of control if I don’t keep up with it. Good for you, Anneli. Shame on those dog owners.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 26, 2020 at 9:49 am
Thanks, Jennie. Many of the dog walkers have their dogs on a leash, but there are many more who think that because this is a semi-rural area they can let their dogs run everywhere and do their business anywhere. When they put it in a plastic bag and then fling it around our perimeter (or anyone else’s) that’s what I find most disgusting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 27, 2020 at 4:21 am
Awful!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 28, 2020 at 2:05 pm
I never understand why anyone – under any conceivable circumstances – can think it okay to bag their dog’s poop and then leave the bag behind. Mess on the ground will at least weather away. Putting it in plastic prolongs its life. Just ridiculous and quite a regular problem here in the UK too.
I’m in the bramble’s native habitat and they’re welcome around here because they feed my dormice! But as a non-native species, I can imagine that they’re incredibly hard to control. I don’t remember seeing any on the island but perhaps they hadn’t reached Nootka Sound. I remember thimbleberries. Which don’t taste quite as nice!
LikeLiked by 1 person
April 28, 2020 at 2:14 pm
Blackberries seem to be everywhere, but they do prefer dry and sunny locations, so in a place where you’d find thimbleberries, blackberries are less likely to grow. I think the poopbag people feel obligated to pick up if someone is watching, but then don’t want to carry the stuff with them and so when no one is looking they undo their good deed actions (if putting poop in plastic can be called a good deed) by creating a non-biodegradable litter item rather than letting nature takes its course. I still think it would be better if they let their dogs poop at home and then used a hose to wash it into the ground or buried the stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person