How much of a pain in the ass will these be to remove? I want to replace this with small native shrubs and flowers/plain mulch. I want to get rid of the stumps/root but I’m open to leaving them, too. The one on the right is destroying my drain clean out.
by analogjuicebox
13 Comments
That’s about an hour of hard work. Don’t pay someone (unless you are physically incapable of doing it)
Definitely a pain in the ass to pull the roots. Your best bet is to carefully pull them out with a truck.
Otherwise, you’ll mostly likely have to do it to old fashioned way. A chainsaw and a shovel. I’d definitely get rid of a large portion of the roots
it’s totally doable, i did that recently. get some strong shovels and maybe a friend, cut out everything you can and then dig out the stumps.
It’s doable if you’re capable of doing some strenuous work. Cut them all the way down and then dig the roots up after a couple of rainy days. It will be laborious but it probably won’t even take that long.
Not a hard deal – use loppers to trim to the ground, then get a mattock and cut a clean circle around. The root ball should come out without too much effort! As you are planning natives (woohoo!), I would chop up the roots and stems and use as mulch after planting.
It’s down to being a pain in the arse. But nothing more than time intensive. What I did to remove shrubs was to dig at the plant’s base and clip the anchour roots with a pruning shear. Then snip the base of the taproot and lifted the plant out. Left the rest of the roots since it’ll decay on its own. If you find that the taproot were too big to reasonably plant over it, you can remove the taproot in a few weeks after initial top removal. It will be brittle and easy to yank out by then. Poison isn’t necessary unless you’re dealing with a ruthless invasive like creeping Charlie.
If my mom can do it, anyone can. It’s easier if you soak the ground, she would say
That’s not Japanese knotweed is it?
I find a sawzall works great for this kind of stuff. Once you saw them down you can dig around the roots and cut away with a sawzall. If the root base is too difficult to remove completely, use the sawzall to cut it down a few inches below ground, top with 2-3 layers of wet cardboard and bury.
All you need is a pickaxe and some beer
I just removed a yew shrub this spring around my foundation as well, which I believe are the two evergreens shown here. It was by far the hardest shrub that I had to remove. it had been there 40+ years so the roots were deep and the wood was very hard.
I was using a mini excavator and it wouldn’t budge at all, so I ended up sawing it a few inches below the grade and covering it like others have suggested. It took plenty of time to dig around the roots and cut away at it but it definitely saved a good chunk of money.
get a jack of some type – be it a bottle jack or a regular car jack. tie a chain somehow to it and the bottom of bush. pump it up. that’s what i read at least. never tried it though.
Excellent feedback in the thread. I’m gonna give it a go.