Suggestions for tools to clean up ditch banks

[Christa_P]

I’m looking for reasonably priced tools to clean up a drainage ditch in a wet area by my barn and maybe some areas along fence lines. The area is covered in mature goldenrod and some multi-flora rose bushes that are too heavy for a regular weedwhacker, and I can’t get in there with a tractor.

I was thinking a hedge trimmer attachment might work, or a heavy-duty head for my weedwhacker. I have the Ryobi 40V expand it head with a regular weedwhacker attachment and a pole saw attachment so would either of these attachments work (or which would work better)??

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-Expand-It-Brush-Cutter-Trimmer-Attachment-RYBRC/327901433

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-Expand-It-18-in-Universal-Hedge-Trimmer-Attachment-RYHDG/327901569

EDITED for clarification.

[Demerara_Stables]

I’m in CA and we have crazy thick thistles and other plants we want to weed whack. If you replace the string attachment on your weed whacker with plastic or metal blades (just google metal weed whacker blades), they stand up to pretty much anything and you don’t have to buy another power tool (unless you want to ).

[Christa_P]

What I posted are attachments for a tool I already have. So, I would be buying part of a power tool, not the whole tool and then I can easily switch back to a regular weedwhacker attachment when I want to.

[Simkie]

I have the brush cutter for my power head, and it’s handy. Not sure if it would give you the reach to clear a ditch without being IN the ditch, though. I wouldn’t expect a hedge trimmer to have the ooomph. Have you tried your pole saw on this stuff?

[Leather]

I’d go with the brush cutter over the hedge trimmer.

Hedge trimmers are really meant more to shape things while held around waist level.

I’m guessing you want to completely mow down things in some areas, so the brush cutter would be better since you can cut at the base.

If there are things you only want to trim back part of like the rose bushes you can still use the brush cutter for that - just lift it up and get the right angle. Probably not recommended in the users manual though!

Otherwise if it’s really thick maybe look into renting a walk-behind field brush cutter/mower?

[Christa_P]

The pole saw doesn’t work, it’s a small chainsaw and when tried it on a small section and the chain came off. It works great on tree branches, but not this stuff.

I was thinking the brush cutter, but the hedge trimmer says it cuts up to 3/4" branches and the goldenrod stems are tough.

The walk behind brush cutter won’t work, it’s too wet and the ditch is narrow and steep, though not deep.

[Simkie]

If your chain is coming off, it’s not tensioned properly. I whack down brush with a chainsaw with fair regularity. (Not really on purpose, but sometimes the tree I want to bring down has a bunch of brush at the base.) The risk is putting your pole saw in the dirt, which will take any sharp off your chain, but it should work just fine to at least do the bulk of the work here, and then you could finish up with loppers or a brush cutter or maybe even a mower.

The brush cutter for my powerhead isn’t any longer than the weed whacker. So size up your ditch and see if that gives you enough reach to make a brush cutter attachment worthwhile.

[clanter]

a herd of goats might be what is needed

[NaturallyHappy]

My neighbor has an older farmer friend who used a sickle blade on his tractor to do just that!

[Christa_P]

Maybe, but I’m not set up for goats.

[Christa_P]

I wish I could get in there with a tractor, but it’s too wet, and kind of a tight area up against a fence.

[Simkie]

How big an area is it? Honestly, I find a nice long pair of loppers easiest for smallish areas of brush. I push the brush over to the ground with my foot, step on it to keep it there, and cut off at ground level. Chainsaw chaps help a lot with particularly thorny crap. This goes faster for me vs pulling out the brush cutter.

[Christa_P]

Probably 3-4 feet wide and ~100-120 feet long. It runs along a fence and eventually out to a wet area of the field where I was told is a good location for a pond. It’s fed from a culvert from across the street that is fed from my neighbor’s spring fed pond, and I have 2 French drains that empty into it. Because of what feeds it the area never dries out.

[Simkie]

Yeah, I’d put on some waterproof boots and take the loppers out there.

[alfonsina]

I’ve popped a lot of invasive shrubs out of the ground using a chain and my tractor. You’d have to get in there though! Rubber boots and a pair of loppers, cut away at the roses enough to get a space so you can reach in and wrap a chain around the shrub’s base, making a noose using the hook on the end of the chain, and then hook the other end of the chain to the bucket of the tractor. Lift the bucket up and presto, out pops the whole dreadful shrub. “It brings a certain satisfaction” (one of my dad’s sayings).

[alfonsina]

Also, an old leather jacket is great to save you from the roses.

[Christa_P]

I can’t get in with a tractor. If I could I would use the brush hog.

[trubandloki]

@Christa_P

I can’t get in with a tractor.

Just want to clarify, you do not have access to next to the ditch on either side with a tractor?

When I read you did not have access with the tractor at the start of the thread, I thought you meant down into the ditch, but your more recent response makes me think you mean no tractor near the ditch at all.

[Christa_P]

@trubandloki

@Christa_P

I can’t get in with a tractor.

Just want to clarify, you do not have access to next to the ditch on either side with a tractor?

When I read you did not have access with the tractor at the start of the thread, I thought you meant down into the ditch, but your more recent response makes me think you mean no tractor near the ditch at all.

Both. It’s a hard to reach spot due to geography and fences and it’s wet. If I try with the tractor I will get very stuck. If we get a dry summer I can mow to about 10’ from the ditch, but I have to be careful.

[Christa_P]

Here is a picture. You can’t see the slope (road is the high spot and it slopes significantly from there), but it gives an idea of the area.

The red is the fence, the blue is the ditch, light green is the area that’s always wet, the slightly darker green is where the culvert comes out and my French drains are above and below the barn foundation.

You can see where I was able to drive a tractor through, but much closer to the ditch won’t work, and even here I was almost getting stuck by the corner of the fence. Eventually I would like to put in a couple of culverts and put in a tractor road, for now I just want the ditch more open.

There are other area that have similar vegetation I would like to clean up, but this is the current focus.