COUNTRY LIFE
A CORRESPONDENT from Antrim asks how he may get rid of bracken that is encroaching on his garden. Bracken seems to flourish on light, well-drained soil as much as on peaty banks, but it does not spread so rapidly if the ground can be turned over and sweetened from time to time. In some places digging is impracticable and all that can be done is cutting. I hesitate to advise anyone to cut bracken unless he is prepared to go on doing so indefinitely. I remember being sent to cut bracken summer after summer when I was a boy. The growth was brought down with a sickle, the tops raked and put on a bonfire, and each year the bracken grew again, as strongly as ever, perhaps even thicker than before. I noticed that, where the plough and the harrow had been, the bracken was slow to make headway again, and I think that it is a plant that thrives best when the soil is undisturbed. Like mare's tail, it dislikes cultivation. I have never had to worry about bracken in my garden, although mare's tail tries my patience annually. If anyone with experience of curbing bracken cares to pass on advice, I am sure my friend in Antrim will be grateful.
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