Orchids and other flowers, scarlet, white. Fallen leaves, torn scattered petals. A large willow tree on its side. Plants, strange. Blackberries, purple, black. The insects quieter then. Clustered flowers standing proud in the warmish windy air. Pink and blue hydrangeas crushed by marching feet.
How red the fire reeks behind the clouds,
How insecure the sod.
Brambles (Rubus fruticosus) are a common and often uninvited guest in many gardens across Ireland. Both a blessing and a curse, they offer an abundance of benefits to local wildlife with the potential to turn any garden into a thorny battlefield.
Their white or pink flowers are a magnet for pollinators like bees and butterflies, while the dense, thorny thickets they form provide shelter for nesting birds, such as thrushes, robins, and finches. The berries are a crucial food source for a wide range of creatures, from foxes and badgers to small mammals like wood mice, and even for birds and insects. In fact, the resilience of brambles, along with their ability to thrive in both light and shade, makes them an important player in woodland ecosystems, where they help protect young saplings from grazing animals.
However, the same qualities that make brambles valuable to wildlife can also make them a nuisance in gardens. They grow rapidly, often spreading unchecked and outcompeting other plants by taking over soil, water, and light. Their thorny stems can straddle paths, snag on clothing, and even trip up unsuspecting gardeners. For those managing smaller gardens, brambles can quickly become overwhelming, dominating the space and choking out less vigorous plants.
As the first blackberries start showing their heads, let’s celebrate brambles with a poem about blackberry jam!
***
Blackberry jam
I
Back from the farm, I asked you to take me
blackberry picking. We drove to Barna
but the roadside brambles were not equal
to West Cork its green mountains. We drove further,
walked along the golf course you were once
kicked out of. Here too, the insufficiency of us
lurked in every bush, the drupes we picked
were dry or turned to mush. On the drive home,
I crumpled, knowing without knowing
that the purple stains on my hands would frame me
as the assassin of our relationship later that evening.
You said it was just too late in the season and I stared
at your handsome face, ugly at your oblivion.
We split the harvest: we lived in two separate houses,
you never allowed otherwise.
II
Thinking of you the next day, I made jam,
salting it with my tears. In France they say a stew too salty
is a sign that the cook is in love, so in love
that she forgets to watch the salt. Straining seeds
through cheesecloth I marvelled at how little of us
there remained, barely enough
for four or five sterile jars, jam I would consume for weeks,
spreading you on my mourning toast.
The last jar I had to throw out:
it had grown a velvet shroud, gone off for good.
By Claire-Lise Kieffer
Reprint, first published in Skylight 47
***
Despite their aggressive nature, there is much to admire about brambles. They bring life and activity into the garden, attracting a host of creatures that rely on them for food and shelter. To manage brambles in a garden setting, it’s essential to strike a balance: allow them to thrive in hedges and less-tended corners where they can support wildlife, but keep their invasive tendencies in check by regularly cutting back or removing runners that encroach on other areas.
With the right approach, brambles can be appreciated for the biodiversity they support while keeping their more aggressive tendencies under control.
A tide of brambles swept across the garden; a wave of green and thorns.
A longing for rain.
The cries of birds above.
***
If you want to learn more about biodiversity, consider joining a new summer school on the last weekend of august, a partnership between Green Sod Ireland and Notre Dame Kylemore in Kylemore, Letterfrack.
References :
Brambles – are they garden plants? (2020, September 7). Cornwall Wildlife Trust. https://rb.gy/78lz1y
Coded web design. (n.d.). Wildflower Bramble Irish Wild Flora Wildflowers of Ireland. Zoe Devlin. https://www.wildflowersofireland.net/plant_detail.php?id_flower=33
Photos by Rory MacCanna: https://www.flickr.com/people/maccannarory/
