Converting blackberries to play field

When we moved to this property, only the area closest to the house was landscaped. The other five or six acres have been left more or less natural; as natural as it gets when a Christmas tree farm is left alone for twenty or more years. That's right, the property used to be a Christmas tree farm. Now, most of the property is trees, ferns, scotch broom (more on that later) and wild Himalayan blackberry.

For those that do not know, in Oregon blackberry is essentially a noxious weed that quickly grows into a very thorny thicket. It can grow several feet in just a few weeks. Yes, we can get sweet berries toward the end of summer, but most of the year blackberry is an impenetrable tangle of canes that can take over any space it can.

In one section of the property, blackberries had covered about 6,000 ft^2 to a height of over 6 feet. We decided this space would be better as a play field for future grandkids. Worried that I would need to tackle this project with nothing more than a machete and weed eater, I started looking at tractors. Pretty big lifestyle jump for a suburban guy.

Fortunately, my neighbor explained that his John Deere sat immobile for 340 days a year, and I was free to borrow it any time. I had never been on a tractor. Little did I realize just how much could be done with heavy machinery and several gallons of diesel fuel.

Started off just running over the blackberries with the bucket down; squishing the canes down. Then, I ran over them again with a field mower attached to the back. A few weeks later, I pushed the dried canes into a big pile and had a huge Bon fire. My wife suggested I needed a fire extinguisher on hand. Based on the 20 ft flames shooting from the top, I feared I would need a helicopter with a water bucket. The fire burns to an ashen heap in less than an hour.

Next, I attached a rototiller to the back of the tractor (man, I am grateful to my neighbor and the use of his tractor) and slowly ran back and forth. After one or two very noisy and dusty hours, the area is starting to look like a field.

Cut a month or two later, and the blackberries star to reemerge. Unbelievable. What other plan can you cut, drive over, burn, ridicule over, never water, and basically abuse, and it comes back again and again?

This weekend, I completed the final tasks for the year turning a big, wild patch of blackberry into a future play field. First, i got out the gas weed eater and cut the emerging (canes up to 4 feet long already)down to ground level. Again using the tractor, I hooked up a box scraper and ran back and forth, dragging the ground more or less flat-ish.

With rain expected to start up this weekend, I bought a big bag of pasture grass seed and a big bag of 16-16-16 fertilizer. Used a walk behind spreader and got the seed and fertilizer down a few hours before the rain started.

By early Spring we will see if any of this does any good, or if the blackberry wins over the grass seed.

We will see if any of this does any good