Creating inaccessible/hidden guerrilla grow sites with briar bushes
This is best done a year or more in advance. To get an initial idea of what you have to work with, you need to see the physical dimensions of the briar patch you're picking while the briars are full-size, so summer/early fall, and it's preferable to prepare the site in late winter/very early spring, before any veg growth has begun yet, and the briars are still mostly sapless and brittle.
Get a pair of chest-height waders, and pick a small stream/creek to follow. Walk up the creek an appropriate distance, until you've found a stretch where the bank is thick with briars. Somewhere that nobody in their right mind would go ashore, even while these bastard thornbushes are dormant for the winter. Do some further recon and make sure there's no nice open deer trails close by, which other people might follow. You basically want a spot that's just pure briars for 30-40 feet in any direction (except for creekwards, of course). Then you just have to tunnel. Pick a path that's naturally relatively free of briar canes, and "train" the briars which are in the way, so they form a tunnel, cutting whatever else is in the way... usually vines and roots, for me. Put a 90-degree turn as close to the creek entrance as possible in order to disguise it. Probably best to have to crawl through the creek entrance, and then have it open up a bit more further into the tunnel. Then clear out a spot to grow in, half kill yourself hauling in soil amendments, and wait for planting time.
This is a pretty simple idea - most outdoor growers use briars as a shield in some way, if they can. Adding the creek into the mix is what really makes this idea work, especially if you pick a creek that's small and isn't any good for fishing, and is in general overgrown on both banks with briars. Thus you greatly reduce the probability of human traffic past your entrance. Make your entrance spot where the water is waist-high - it's easy enough to haul yourself from the creek, but it's far too deep for anyone who isn't wearing chest waders, which further narrows the list of people who could ever be in a position to see/enter your entrance. Fishermen generally don't walk through deeper portions of creeks, even if they're wearing waders, if for no other reason than that it kicks up silt from the bottom and makes the water opaque, thereby ruining it for fishing. And, if you're carrying a fishing rod, the only people who are gonna see you are other fishermen, and they won't think anything of the backpack you've got on. It's probably just your tackle and some lunch. The last reason which I love creeks is that they totally eliminate the possibility of leaving a trail through vegetation. So, it's impossible for someone to just follow your trail to your grow. You can also visit to care for your plants more often, which is necessary if you've got this bloody awful invasive thorny vine in your area... around here it liberally festoons my plants within a week of having been cleared completely.
This method of spot creation takes a hell of a lot of sweat and effort, but it works, and as years pass, you can return to the same spots, improving the soil, and training plant growth to cover the entrance, but to be easily movable.
This is best done a year or more in advance. To get an initial idea of what you have to work with, you need to see the physical dimensions of the briar patch you're picking while the briars are full-size, so summer/early fall, and it's preferable to prepare the site in late winter/very early spring, before any veg growth has begun yet, and the briars are still mostly sapless and brittle.
Get a pair of chest-height waders, and pick a small stream/creek to follow. Walk up the creek an appropriate distance, until you've found a stretch where the bank is thick with briars. Somewhere that nobody in their right mind would go ashore, even while these bastard thornbushes are dormant for the winter. Do some further recon and make sure there's no nice open deer trails close by, which other people might follow. You basically want a spot that's just pure briars for 30-40 feet in any direction (except for creekwards, of course). Then you just have to tunnel. Pick a path that's naturally relatively free of briar canes, and "train" the briars which are in the way, so they form a tunnel, cutting whatever else is in the way... usually vines and roots, for me. Put a 90-degree turn as close to the creek entrance as possible in order to disguise it. Probably best to have to crawl through the creek entrance, and then have it open up a bit more further into the tunnel. Then clear out a spot to grow in, half kill yourself hauling in soil amendments, and wait for planting time.
This is a pretty simple idea - most outdoor growers use briars as a shield in some way, if they can. Adding the creek into the mix is what really makes this idea work, especially if you pick a creek that's small and isn't any good for fishing, and is in general overgrown on both banks with briars. Thus you greatly reduce the probability of human traffic past your entrance. Make your entrance spot where the water is waist-high - it's easy enough to haul yourself from the creek, but it's far too deep for anyone who isn't wearing chest waders, which further narrows the list of people who could ever be in a position to see/enter your entrance. Fishermen generally don't walk through deeper portions of creeks, even if they're wearing waders, if for no other reason than that it kicks up silt from the bottom and makes the water opaque, thereby ruining it for fishing. And, if you're carrying a fishing rod, the only people who are gonna see you are other fishermen, and they won't think anything of the backpack you've got on. It's probably just your tackle and some lunch. The last reason which I love creeks is that they totally eliminate the possibility of leaving a trail through vegetation. So, it's impossible for someone to just follow your trail to your grow. You can also visit to care for your plants more often, which is necessary if you've got this bloody awful invasive thorny vine in your area... around here it liberally festoons my plants within a week of having been cleared completely.
This method of spot creation takes a hell of a lot of sweat and effort, but it works, and as years pass, you can return to the same spots, improving the soil, and training plant growth to cover the entrance, but to be easily movable.
