Back to... All that Damn Blackberry

I learned from a friend this weekend that there is no good way (besides poison) to get rid of blackberry. He says you cannot burn the brambles since they emit little spores that can launch a taproot from any location. Like, it could decide to take root in the forsythia. Wrong.

I also learned that digging them out is the only way to get rid of them and then you have to be extra careful because of the spores.

I thought it was funny when I moved here last year and saw people gathering blackberries near the I-5 in the U-district and near the IKEA out in Renton. There is some use for these things and apparently some kind of following. If they only saw the damage I did yesterday. All those precious berries--still white on the vine. Well they're dead now.

But--they're nasty--some of spiky arms were like three inches in diameter! And somehow one tine managed to leave a healthy scratch on my Achilles heel. How befitting...