They are extremely aggressive weeds, and hard to get rid of. They spread their seeds far and wide with the wind. Are you sure you want to do this?

We live on acreage, I thought a nice stand of these would look good in front of the dead berries that we have to spray every year because our neighbor's won't manage their berries, they just let them grow, grow, grow. I even hooked my eye one time walking to the mailbox. Scratches all of our cars on our street too. I go out and chop the long branches when they're not home. They do not use chemicals, EVER. When berry bramble is the main shrub of your garden , I think it's time for chemicals.

Is Fireweed really that agressive? That would be great, because maybe it would give the blackberry a run for the money. Anything would look better than what's there. It is very far away from the main garden.

I know berries are part of our life here. I don't mind them, they just need to be controlled.

Do you have room for the native conifer trees, like western red cedar, coast redwood, western hemlock, incense cedar, etc? Fireweed won't stop the berry bushes, but these trees will. Once they get big enough, they will shade out the berries. And believe me, it doesn't take very long if you water and fertilize them. Once they are established, they don't need much water. These trees are not prima donnas. They have few problems. Industrial parks should be using these in their landscaping instead of pouring money into a gazillion acres of lawn. A possible disadvantage is that these trees will eventually get very big, especially coast redwood, which has an unbelievable growth rate once it gets going.

You can grow them as pyramidal specimen trees, with branches all the way to the ground, or you can prune off the lower branches up to 7 or 8 feet above ground level, and have an open, beautiful parklike effect, and a perfect place to grow ferns, trilliums, erythroniums, and the like.

pacnwgrdngirl - I'm just curious what area do you live in? I just checked out your photobucket pics and see that you grow lots of roses. Do you have any deer where you live? I live in North Bend on 5 acres and have never been able to grow roses because the deer and elk devour them!!

Hi Judy ~ Gig Harbor. We have lots of deer!!!! I am very lucky because the neighbors whose properties touch ours all have very big dogs. Chocolate Labs, Golden Retreiverss, and German Shephards.
I'm assuming that's what keeps them out. Sometimes they bug us with their barking and scare me to death when they run up to me in our yard (no fences) but that's OK with me. I feel like I have 3 pets. They are all really sweet dogs.

My friend down the street has NO plants in her garden at all. Decimated by deer. They come at the same time every day too. I've heard they are creatures of habit. If they find you, you're in trouble! Other neighbors have to chicken wire everything. I'm keeping my fingers croseed so far!

lilydude ~ My husband wants to put some Coast Redwoods in some spots. We've actually planted a lot of trees. We've had trouble finding redwoods though. We've planted a couple of Giant Sequoias, very pretty, and growing FAST!!

Epilobium angustifolium 'Album' can be quite lovely. I got it years ago from Cricklewood nursery in Snohomish, but I guess it got crowded out.