Weed and sapling cutting? Need suggestions

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zannej

zannej

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I posted pics of some of the weeds in the Post a Photo thread. I've been struggling to keep the weeds, blackberry bushes, thorny crud, and saplings cut back. The stuff is too tough for a traditional hedge trimmer with line. I used some black and decker electric hedge trimmer thing. It wasn't tough enough for the thicker stuff.
I need something that is easy to use, not to heavy, battery powered, and probably with a metal blade. I was thinking a blade trimmer of some sort. I do have a mini chainsaw but it requires me to hold stuff still with one hand while cutting. I want something I can hold without having to bend too much and just raze stuff down.

Anyone know of some good tools for the job? Any brands recommended? I was looking on amazon and the trimmers there had terrible reviews.
 
old time brush axe. get a long handled one. several versions out there.


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I saw your pictures... I'd hire someone to bush hog it at this point. Just flatten all of it... Then decide as it comes back what to keep or kill. In other words landscape it. You can grow anything you want... what's there now is a mess. Sometimes its best to wipe the slate clean and start over. I think you are at that point.

I've always called it a sling blade... locally some call it a kaiser blade... both names are used.

kaisera.jpg
 
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I use a hand-held brush cutter. It's like a grass trimmer, but on steroids. It has a bicycle handle bar type grip, straight shaft, and uses a carbide-tipped circular brush cutter blade. Of course, mine uses a two-stroke engine, but I am pretty sure you can find battery-powered ones.
 
I looked at your photos again. You have a china berry tree in your back yard, get that thing out of there. It'll suck up all the nutrients in the soil and crowd out/kill plants you want to keep. I've got one I've been cutting down for years, always comes back.

Melia azedarach aka China Berry, an invasive from china and a nuisance.
 
Peanut said:
I looked at your photos again. You have a china berry tree in your back yard, get that thing out of there. It'll suck up all the nutrients in the soil and crowd out/kill plants you want to keep. I've got one I've been cutting down for years, always comes back.

Melia azedarach aka China Berry, an invasive from china and a nuisance.
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The trick is that once you've cut the brush/saplings down, you have to mow the area at least once per year, to keep them from coming back. Eventually, the roots will die.
 
elkhound said:
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Also known as a 'brush hook!' You can pick 'em up at any store that sells gear related to firefighting work... I bought several brush hooks & fire axes from a store like this in downtown San Diego, the equipment served as Christmas presents for friends, lol. I kept a set for myself for use in the field, of course! A fire ax is heavier than a regular ax, but it can tear stuff up when applied with vigor, lol. The brush hook is wicked if ya sharpen it... you can use a sanding disc on a grinder to sharpen brush hooks, axes, any similar blade, just remember to oil the metal blade afterward! Also, be careful when using a brush hook (or an ax), you don't want anybody nearby... a fire line is different, the firefighters and conservation workers are trained to be aware of their surroundings. In the old days, some pioneers died after cutting or injuring themselves with axes and similar tools... improper handling & glancing strikes would cause serious wounds, then sepsis or gangrene or whatever would set in and kill the pioneer. No doctor within a hundred miles, lol... :oops:

Peanut, I still use lines from 'SLING BLADE'---"Coffee makes me nervous when I drink it, mmm hmmm!!!" And another classic line: "I aim to kill you with it..." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Gotta use the same voice Billy Bob Thornton used in the movie!!! Chalk it up to a bizarre sense of humor among friends!!! ;)
 
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My china berry is on a major fence line I can't move or mow. So I'm stuck cutting it down every few years. Same with princess trees, another asian invasive. I cut them every chance I get. Both trees kill other tree roots preventing them from growing.

I actually use this characteristic at a spot at the edge of a pasture. It's semi wooded, provides cattle with some shade and shade resistant grasses during late summer. Princess trees grow there, they keep other brush from sprouting and keep the area open. So I let that tree grow.
 
Bacpacker said:
Bush hog would be a WHOLE LOT faster. It's so grown up now, it'd be hard to salvage any of it.
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I agree. A Bush Hog is much needed there.
The only other option for her would be a team of energetic young men with bush-axes, or one with this:
Walk-behind-Field-and-brush-mower-DR-POWER-ZWO-Baumaschinen-Service-GmbH.jpg
 
One more tid-bit, once you get it chopped down, you can essentially roast it by laying some clear plastic over the section. I didn't see the pix so don't know how large of a piece you are dealing with. If you have ever laid a plastic cover on the ground, you know how it burns the veg. underneath it. It would just expedite the process of clearing it.
 
I've tried manual tools but I don't have a lot of strength or energy & I have chronic pain. I'm looking for something to make the job easier. Bush-hog can't go in the areas I want bc of other obstacles. If it would fit I'd have the guy we sold the tractor to bushhogging the hell out of the stuff.

I've tried the mini chainsaw and it has its limitations. I will probably use it on the chinaberry thing. We had to actually dig up the roots of the old one to get rid of it. The one in the corner near the house has been cut down 5x and keeps growing back. But it's less than 50' from our water well so I didn't want to use poisons and I can't use fire that close to the house. I may end up having to use some sort of weed killer on the leaves and hope it kills the stupid things.

I'm not so concerned about my 4-o'clocks (that have taken over the front yard) bc they go back under the ground in winter & they don't have thorns, but the dogfennel & other weeds annoy me. Especially the ones with thorns. The dogfennel gets in the way of getting to the truck and is too thick to cut with a stringed weedeater.

No energetic young men available here. Most of the people who do yardwork are on drugs & end up stealing stuff or just not showing up.
 
Supervisor42 said:
I agree. A Bush Hog is much needed there.
The only other option for her would be a team of energetic young men with bush-axes, or one with this:
Walk-behind-Field-and-brush-mower-DR-POWER-ZWO-Baumaschinen-Service-GmbH.jpg
Click to expand...
I've rented one of those DR brush mowers once to cut hazel brush on my property. It was torture. As soon as the mower pressed against the brush, the entire mower stopped moving forward and the tires just sat there and spun. I had to physically push the mower into the brush to cut it down. Very tiring.
 
I don't know anyone who has goats anymore. I would love to borrow some if they did.
Bush hog can't fit into the areas I need to trim. Fence is in the way & there are some tree stumps & other stuff as well.
If there was a push-mower with enough power to cut saplings it would be nice, but even that might run into some snags.
 
From the picture it doesn't look like a large area but if it is...... when my brother bought his place many years ago it had been empty and neglected for several years. The grass and brush and tree saplings were all 3 to 5 feet tall. He had an old, very old riding lawn mower and we raised the blade as high as it would go and took turns riding it to cut down the 5 acres of land. Sometimes we had to only take half a swipe to prevent it from bogging down the blade. After we cut it all down we lowered the blade and did it again. Every weekend for the entire summer we played that game, it was actually kind of relaxing and a lot less work than the other projects we had going there. By the end of the summer he had a nice lawn and all the tiny tree trunks from the saplings were gone.
If your area isn't large enough for a riding lawn mower you will need a push mower with at least a 5 horsepower engine. Hang a heavy canvas or rubber flap off the back to limit stuff flying back at your ankles. It makes a mess but just keep going over it with the mower and all that crud will be chopped up into a great mulch for the ground.
 
Thanks, Inresponse. I might be able to fit a mower in some places but not all. I'm thinking of asking my friend to take a chainsaw to the chinaberry trees- although I'm thinking of looking up some sort of weed killer that isn't so dangerous to animals and water supply if I spray it on the leaves. Part of the problem with the blackberries is that they are climbing up the chainlink fence.
 
If the area is not super dangerous dry, and if you have a garden hose handy, you could use a weed burner. Just take precautions and make sure you keep the flame away from important things like the house and a gas meter. That will kill the tops real quick and burn stuff down to ground level, then you just need to maintain once or twice a week to prevent new growth until stuff dies completely or you get the roots dug out.
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The area is too close to the house & we don't have a working hose anywhere but for the water trough now. Not sure why the one at the front isn't working anymore. One at the back was cut off when the pipes ruptured & friend hasn't come back over to finish fixing it. I'd do it myself if I could fit under the house in those places.

I heard that triclopyr4 can kill the chinaberry trees. I wonder if it is safe to spray the leaves with it on a week when it won't be raining. Supposed to take 4 hours to get rain-proof & can take a few weeks for the stuff to die from what I heard. But, that is just for the trees. I want to take out the weeds too.

Magus, I wish I had the tools to make diy mowers. That would be cool. My nice neighbor leveled his feeld somewhat by taking an old mattress that had the fabric torn off so it was just the springs, hitching it to the back of his tractor, and dragging it across his fields. But, that wouldn't fit in this area.

It's been raining constantly so the plants are growing even taller and the ground is super damp. I spotted a box of some kind of gardening tools in the living room but its behind some furniture so I need to try to get over to it and see what it is and if I can use it on these weeds. I think I saw "Worx" on the box. We've got boxes piled up in there & I need to go through and get rid of stuff.

I'm thinking of trying this stuff on the trees
https://www.homedepot.com/p/BioAdva...se-Brush-Killer-Plus-704655/203029601#overlay
 
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Chinaberry needs to be cut to a stump, then kill the stump if you can't uproot it. You mentioned a well close by? That greatly limits your options.
 
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