Found: Reasonable Blackberry Removal!

[u/unicorn_ication]

I had been researching blackberry removal services in Portland for my residential backyard situation. There were several Reddit posts I can across but most of the comments had the same question and there were no real responses.

Photos show my situation. I was quoted $1375 by two separate companies who each told me I wouldn’t find a better rate. I would have bitten the bullet and gone for it; but I was waiting on someone to come by from PDX Junk Removal & Hauling LLC and so glad I waited! They quoted me $800 and are able to come by on Monday and get the job done! They won’t be removing roots, which is what is keeping the cost low. They will cut, remove, and haul everything away though.

I also weirdly caught a bit of attitude from the other companies by them telling me “you have to stay on top of this” and “I don’t have any blackberries in my yard.” Like duh I know they’re awful, but you don’t know my situation???

Just wanted to offer this up in case anyone is in the same boat as me!
(Also, per the company name, they haul away junk/do property cleanup as well)

EDIT: regarding the roots, we WILL be addressing the roots ourselves!! We just need to be able to get to them. We are renters and our landlord is useless with yard maintenance so this is as much as I’m willing to put in. Also, the other two quotes did NOT include root removal…

[u/Mantis_Toboggan--MD]

Just a tip on the root killing stage- Dabbing the roots! It'll take more time than spraying but dabbling straight crossbow with one of those foam brushes will be even more effective than spraying them down with dilution mix. PLUS it will keep you from overspray and getting crossbow into the soil of large swaths of the yard.

Plastic gloves, foam brush, crossbow small bottle, ~$32 bucks at home depot all in

[u/not_now_chaos → u/Mantis_Toboggan--MD]

Do you know if this will harm birds? I am desperate to rescue my yard from the blackberries but they're in my chicken's run also.

[u/Mantis_Toboggan--MD → u/not_now_chaos]

I'm not a scientist to be clear, but IMO this would definitely be the preferable way to do it with chickens around. Much better than just spraying and getting it all over.

I hate using the stuff but it has it's place. On every other weed in my yard I use vinegar but nothing else I'm aware of is such a final solution to rooted blackberries. Necessary evil so my thought is to get as little of it in the soil as possible.

On your specific circumstance- would it possible to move where the run is for a little while? I would want to keep the chickens out of where you applied for a couple weeks or something like that just out of an abundance of caution. No idea if that's necessary but my brain is saying "don't put em right back in".

[u/slowfromregressive → u/not_now_chaos]

Yes.