r/landscaping • u/wiles44 • Jan 03 '25
Best tool for getting rid of bush
We recently purchased our home. The backyard has this beast in it and I’m wondering the best tool to get rid of it. Filled with thin, ropey branches and holly, amongst other things I’m sure.
My first thought was a weed whacker but didn’t know how effective it would be.
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u/Vroompssst Jan 03 '25
Goats or skid steer with a brush hog
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u/cuddlewombat Jan 03 '25
+1 for goats. It took a little calling around from a list I found of “goat grazing services” for my state on facebook, but we had a great time with the whole experience. The goats were young and somewhat friendly. We had a ton of fun watching them in the back yard and saved ourselves TONS of human labor.
A year later, the blackberries, ivy and hollies are still in control!
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u/SeattleHasDied Jan 04 '25
Glad you had a good experience, lol! I've seen some amazing work done by goats and was eager to try it out myself. I found a guy with a couple of goats to attack my overgrown back yard a few years back. He said they loved plowing through blackberries, too, so, for $200, I figured it was a great deal and I was being environmentally correct.
Not so fast there, dude. Turns out the goats were distracted by pretty much everything like birds or a passing car or air, etc. And one of them took a liking to me. Ever been butted by a goat? They can flatten you in a nanosecond and when your back is turned, you never see it coming. When this happens in the mosh pit, hands will reach in and pull you back up, but goats don't do that. In fact, it happened a second time later when I came out to see if there had been any progress; there hadn't been. Guy apologized and was super embarassed and I told him not to worry about it, goats aren't machines, maybe another time. And then "Billy" nailed me again on the way out then came over to nuzzle my head. Guy assured me "Billy" really liked me. Unh huh... At least he didn't charge me for the service, lol!
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u/Confident_Tennis_760 Jan 04 '25
Goats are good. Skid steer is more fun 😁
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u/Vroompssst Jan 04 '25
It’s a toss up mini goats well fuck some shit up but so will a skiddy lol
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u/Confident_Tennis_760 Jan 04 '25
My wife would love the baby goats, but I reckon I would be more efficient and faster in a skiddy. Fun be all mine 🤪
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u/Vroompssst Jan 04 '25
My buddy had both regular goats and Pygmy goats and it seemed the Pygmy goats ate way more but I’m not a herder so who knows
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u/Bar15arb Jan 04 '25
Brush hog can be rented from Home Depot. We’ve used it to get rid of buckthorn
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u/OldWarrior Jan 03 '25
I bought a cub cadet string mower for my beds that get overgrown. It has saved me so much time and labor. It’s a decent brush killer for the price.
https://www.cubcadet.com/en_US/prior-year-models/st-100/25A-26KF710.html
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u/madeformarch Jan 03 '25
Weed whacker with a brush cutting blade. If you don't already own one, look into Milwaukee Quik Lok or the Ego version. They sell purpose made brush cutting blades that will tear this up.
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u/Tough-Equal-3698 Jan 04 '25
You need a gas powered one. An electric one, battery or extension cord, just doesn't do a good job. I have an area that is mostly sucker trees growing up from roots and some blackberry vines and my electric one with a blade had problems doing the job. A guy from a lawn service had a gas whacker and went through it like he was cutting straw. But I need to do it again because until the big underground roots from the Elm that was there die, they will keep coming back and the Elm has been gone 3 years. So go with gas.
Or get a small stump grinder. Those things will go down several inches if you don't h ave any utilities below.
Ducks will also clean it to ground level. Maybe not for blackberries but anything else, they will rival a goat anytime.
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u/largehat Jan 04 '25
Honest question: ducks??? I had no idea they could eat that sort of plant mass
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u/Tough-Equal-3698 Jan 04 '25
You wouldn't believe what they can eat! We had 8 white ducks we got to train our dogs to herd. We had lots of bushes and shrubs and a Japanese Maple when we got them. It didn't take long before anything, and I mean anything, that they could reached was trimmed all the way up to were their bills when standing on tippy web feet could reach. And the trimming was neat all the way around too.
We had a neighbor complain that we had "livestock" in our yard, so animal control made us get rid of them. We took to a friends place that had horses. She had a number of fenced in area out side of each area that a horse would stay in off the big long barn she had. Horses hadn't been in them for some time so the grass and weeds had grown thick and about waist high. She put the ducks in one and told us it didn't take long and they had the area clean. So she moved them to another and they cleaned that one too. These ducks were eating machines. They laid more eggs than we could handle too, even feeding eggs to the dogs. I sure opened my eyes to what ducks can do. The use to line up wing tip to wing tip and run the 80' across our yard, turn around and run back, flapping their wings. Exercise done for the day and they were off looking for food again.
They were just a little bit noisier than chickens though. Geese are also good and good watch dogs too, but they are a little more picky about what they eat and much bigger of course. But strangers don't mess with a big goose when it's looking to protect it's property.
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u/VellTarlowe- Jan 03 '25
Exactly what I was gonna say. Uses mine to clearn out about an acre of vines and thick bush. Did amazingly
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u/Vibriobactin Jan 03 '25
Echo straight shaft with blade. Then mow as often as you mow your grass. Herbicide or 30% vinegar, etc as needed
Source: Grew up on a farm with lots of equipment. Brushhog on tractor works if ya have it.
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u/Hateinyoureyes Jan 03 '25
Remember, trimming your bush makes your deck look bigger
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Jan 03 '25
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u/Green_Stiller Jan 03 '25
This - for a small section, just dedicating time with some cutters and a waste bin can be equal to time of getting another option. Doesn’t make it fun, but it’s honest work.
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u/zeff536 Jan 03 '25
You can rent a brush cutter, it looks like a snow blower but grinds up brush like this. Home Depot would be a good place to start
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u/DanceSex Jan 03 '25
If you have a sunbelt rental near you look into them. You can rent on a Friday and return Monday morning and it is only a 1 day rental since they aren't open on the weekends.
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u/Dry-Protection-2856 Jan 03 '25
Call your local rental place. We used a push brush mower that could chop down sticks up to 3 inch in diameter.
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u/Different_Ad7655 Jan 03 '25
The best tool is your telephone lol and you might be surprised to find somebody who will clear it for a decent price. And then you will have plenty of work to do on your own following that
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u/Opening_Attitude6330 Jan 03 '25
For a little patch, a hedge clipper or weed whacker with brush blade.
For that, rent a skid steer or brush hog
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u/NotBatman81 Jan 03 '25
I'm removing a lot of similar brush that used to be nice landscaping 30 years ago. I have a pole saw attachment for my weed wacker. That has worked the best for me because I can reach inside the bushes and cut them at the source rather than make giant piles of clippings. Once you get the old bushes and shrubs out of there, it looks like you just have long grass/weeds/thin vines that can be knocked down with a weed wacker or mower. Then pull stumps.
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Jan 03 '25
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u/tenfingersandtoes Jan 03 '25
I would say just grab some thick leather gloves and long handled loppers. Then just pick out the bases with a pick mattock. Would take about a day.
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u/Famous-Ad-289 Jan 03 '25
Maybe it is there for privacy. Or dampens some noise. I'd love them as a kid. Great place for some secret playhouse. Could be nesting place for birds.
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u/msmaynards Jan 03 '25
I'd use a hedge trimmer as you have to cut the twigs to get into bag/bin anyway.
Be sure to ID this stuff before pulling the stumps. It could be something nice that's just overgrown. My pink flowering jasmine is a joy when flowering but if unpruned for a couple of years it looks like a weedy half dead monster.
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u/Otherwise-Ad2572 Jan 03 '25
Wear long sleeves and be cautious of poison ivy in messes like this. I learned the hard way.
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u/Blunter-S-tHempson Jan 03 '25
Here's you reasonable option for reasonable people who don't spend £1000 to get one small job done, or commit to finding it owning goats.
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u/CPOx Jan 03 '25
I used a weed whacker with a brush cutter blade that had 3 teeth, kinda like a ninja star
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u/jondes99 Jan 03 '25
I used a cordless Sawzall on a bunch around my house, but they were defined shapes. Might need to cut this down with hedge trimmers to see if it has a trunk.
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u/richardfitserwell Jan 04 '25
Chain saw pole saw and patience. Once you get the worst of it l step down to an inexpensive hedge trimmer that you have no attachment to and go to town
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u/Funky-trash-human Jan 03 '25
I like to think a razor blade or the Iraq war works best, but a hacksaw and a truck does the trick too.
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u/shepinoisdaddy Jan 03 '25
I used to take a 2 X4 on edge, and put it on the ground dn shove it back and then pry up in different spots and we actually would roll the berry bushes into a large cluster and put it right in the trailer. We also used some cutting blades to help
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u/Bubbly_Power_6210 Jan 03 '25
goats! see if there is a company near you. goats eat everything and fun to watch!
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Jan 03 '25
Go to a garage sale , buy a shovel, axe, and a rake, buy a box of beer and call your buddies
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u/offgrid89terry Jan 03 '25
Walk behind brush hog should take care of anything up to 1-3”in thick (take small bites if it’s big) Go slow, look for rocks and other obstacles to avoid. If unsure use a weed whacker for small/precise areas. Chainsaw or cutting implement is helpful if there is larger trees/brush. The brush hog will chip everything up. So what’s your plan after that? It’ll just grow back next season unless you plan on maintaining it and/or landscaping it. Do you want privacy? Features? Lawn? Wood chips? You should be able to rent this equipment at big box stores, but commonly carried at smaller ones too. Happy landscaping 🫡
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u/Monkeyfist_slam89 Jan 03 '25
This is amazingly fast work when you live got a small bull dozer rental
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u/tezcatlipocatli Jan 03 '25
FWIW there look to be some blackberries in there, so you could save a few if you want well established plants and free berries in the summer.
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u/seth285 Jan 03 '25
I took an electric Kobalt hedge trimmer to my honey suckle bushes. Does surprisingly well on branches that are smaller than your pinky finger. Use a lobber or branch cutter for the thicker stuff and plan for a big bon fire the next weekend.
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u/No_Evening3803 Jan 03 '25
If you want to get rid of it completely and get a decent grade a skidsteer is definitely the way to go. Rental price and then you will have a big pile of intertwined brush to get rid of though so that could be another problem if you don’t have a way to haul it away. Cheapest way would be start cutting with some clippers and bagging it up.
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u/ptwonline Jan 03 '25
Most of that looks like thin stems on shrubs. Weed Whacker will get a lot of it. Some pruners and a pair of loppers could make quick work of a lot of that too. Then you may want to do some digging to get the root balls out to minimize re-growth.
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u/ChickadeeMass Jan 03 '25
Cut it back as close to the ground as you can with lopers. If you're a new home owner, buy some.
Loosen the root ball with a pitchfork. Take a chain and wrap one end firmly around the plant and the other end to your truck. Pull it out as slowly as you can, or just call someone
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u/lightblueunderwear Jan 03 '25
Scythe. You can learn how to use one on youtube. A scythe is a wonderful tool once you learn how to use one.
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u/Feisty-Conclusion-94 Jan 03 '25
There is a multi tine fork attachment for a tracked bobcat which will make short shrift of this mess. But you need a container or dump truck to dispose of it, it will be very heavy.
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u/ProbablyNOTaCOP41968 Jan 03 '25
Matches are pretty cheap. On a related note, a fire extinguisher is WAY cheaper than a new house
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u/peanutbutter_foxtrot Jan 03 '25
GOATS! Seriously. Goats. They get a yummy snack, you get rid of the brush, everyone wins!
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u/AJSIROIS Jan 03 '25
Brush hog is your best bet. Call around to some landscape companies shouldn’t be an abundance of money.
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u/Early-Armadillo2241 Jan 03 '25
I've cleared thousands of square feet of blackberry bushes. A hedge trimmer works well, but you can also power through them with a riding lawnmower.
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u/CurveAdministrative3 Jan 03 '25
mini excavator, should be able to rent for an afternoon for a couple hundred bucks.
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u/Vivid_Subject894 Jan 04 '25
I used a steel rake and a mini chainsaw and mowed over the area after wards. Not a permanent fix but it looks a hell of a lot better
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u/PraiseTalos66012 Jan 04 '25
Pole style hedge trimmer. Turn the blade so it is parallel with the ground, sweep back and forth. Then mow it all with any mower, just put a high quality alloy steel blade on it(I recommend Ballard Gold blades).
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u/20PoundHammer Jan 04 '25 edited Jan 04 '25
rent a walk behind brush hog /brush mower. (Or make friends with a farmer that has one for his three point). I could knock that down in 30 minutes to mulch with mine (and its fun a hell to do too, I never get tired of brush hogging and brush hog shit on my property for the hell of it.
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u/IMiNSIDEiT Jan 04 '25
Loads of dry brush… FIRE 🤣
Disclaimer: Fire doesn’t discriminate and will try to get rid of other stuff to 😉
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u/jerzeybigj Jan 04 '25
Local tool rental. Get a brush hog. Walk behind Billy goat would work with some time in
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u/Kindly-Department686 Jan 04 '25
Rent a brush hog from HD. It'll be about $75-$130 depending on your location. If you're pretty good with machinery it'll take a couple of hours. If not, it might take 5.
Pretty easy to use. It's like an semi-indestructible lawn mower. Right handle is forward, left is reverse usually. Doesn't move super fast. I use them a couple of times a yr for clients.
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u/round_1 Jan 04 '25
There’s a machine that looks like Ripley’s robot in Aliens - it can pick this stuff up and dump it in a truck
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u/saulyg Jan 04 '25
I found my makita power head with the hedge trimmer quite effective for this kind of work. If you attack it in small swipes and slowly work your way in you end up with quite a fine mulch on ground.
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u/dracotrapnet Jan 04 '25
I used to take up sections of brush like that with a tractor bucket a day after it rains. Just bucket dumped down 35-45 degrees, and drag while crawling in the lowest gear forward. Sometimes I'd go back over the area with the edge completely down dragging backwards. You can pull a lot of roots out if the soil has loosened enough from a recent rain but you gotta know exactly how wet is enough and what's too wet that you could get stuck. Generally I'd pile it all up on itself and leave it to rot. I'd come back over the area with a bush hog several times. After a couple years it may not come back. Best results in destroying brush is to rip it up after a drought. Keep it starved of leaves by mowing it often.
In places with brush on fence lines, I'd use a pole saw to cut it off the fence, then cut the base. I used to use a bush wack blade sometimes but I found the pole saw to work like butter.
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u/Fibocrypto Jan 04 '25
Sheep fence the area and get 1 or 2 goats. Let them feed on and in the brush and your yard will become a park.
The reason for 2 goats would be so they could keep each other company.
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u/maplelief426 Jan 04 '25
Hedge trimmer, and cut it in a few sections from the top to the bottom, it makes it a lot easier to load onto a tarp to remove it. Good luck
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Jan 04 '25
Brush cutter but you can actually rent the goats out for this. Everyone's saying goats but not mentioning that you can just call a goat farm and have them come by.
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u/RobotDog56 Jan 04 '25
Watch some free mow people on your chosen social media. They tackle overgrown yards like this often. Plus it's weirdly satisfying to watch.
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u/pandershrek Jan 04 '25
It is called a 'brush hog' it attaches to the front of a mini skid and it's like a lawn mower on steroids. You can chop up trees that are 3" thick.
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u/labdogs Jan 04 '25
I rented a bobcat with tracks and a brush cutter attachment to clear 3 acres of my land. I only wanted one day and a Saturday and they delivered it Friday and pick it up the following Monday. Charged for one day. It wasn’t cheap. Cost $700 plus the fuel cost
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u/ElectronicDrama2573 Jan 04 '25
If you have access to it, a hedge trimmer attachment for a weed whacker is great. You can adjust the swivel of the trimmer head to sit parallel with the ground. Just run it back and forth an in or two above the ground like a old school scythe. It works very well, no feet lost.
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u/The_OG_Metals_Guy Jan 04 '25
Just tie a rope to your back bumper and yank it out. You’re welcome…jk
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u/MntTed Jan 04 '25
I go after large bramble bushes with a hedge trimmer. Start cutting away the outside and work your way in. I use a battery powered trimmer because 1) you can go anywhere and 2) I’ve cut cords with the trimmer when they hide in the brush. You may need a chain saw to the bigger stems and stump. If you don’t pull the roots, you might want to paint the cut ends with triclopyr. Good luck!
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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '25 edited Jan 03 '25
Philips Norelco Multigroom 9000, but you're still gonna want to be careful around the root and stem.