Digging out tree roots?

mysparrow

Hi all, I wonder if any of you have any good advice for me?:D

I've recently moved house, the garden unfortunately had a 6ft high hedge consisting of 16 leylandii. It blocked out most of the sun. I spent this weekend sawing, lopping & chopping them down. Now I have 16 stumps with massive roots left & I'm stumped! (sorry)
Now I'm not afraid of hard work but I'm only small & I can't shift these blighters - I spent an hour trying to dig out the first one (I'm very sore today!). I cut through all the roots I could dig down to but still it hardly budges. Any ideas how to get them them out?
I'm really keen to get this area planted up with a variety of shrubs & trees to attract birds, bees, wildlife in general.
Thank you...

Greatgimp

I spent 3 DAYS digging out an ash stump about 2ft across - pleased I done it, using sabre saw, hand saws, axe and wedges.

mysparrow

guess I'll be busy for the next few months then!

C_Mababejive

Have a good look at where your tree stumps are and assess whether or not there could be buried utilities in the area. If you damage gas/water/electric/telecoms to your or your neighbours property then it will cost you £££

Greatgimp

If you dig around to expose the biggest roots, perhaps you know somebody with a chainsaw to go through them at just below soil level - beware though, if the saw blade TOUCHES a bit of dirt, thats the blade wanting sharpening and a very unhappy worker/mate.

Look at the price of a sabre saw with a few packs of coarse blades.

Wookey

If your not in a hurry to remove the stumps kill them of with some tree root killer, a drop of oil painted onto the stump will do the same job. It will take a couple of years for the stumps to start to decay, the bigger they are the longer it will take. Once they do start to rot they are easily broken up and removed. This is a long term solution.

mysparrow

Not sure I'd trust myself with a chainsaw, there might be a bit more than dirt on it after I'd finished!

Wookey - do you happen to know if I could plant around the treated stumps? Or would it be a case of leaving that side of the garden bare while it works?

Davesnave

A lot of the roots on leylandii are fairly near the surface, so if you can chop into them with something it will help with their eventual removal. I've used a 9" angle grinder, as it is safer than a chain saw, but it made a lot of smoke!

As for the stump, the trees will not re-grow. I suppose it might hasten their death and decomposition if you applied Dax Root Out to them, though this would be illegal under EU legislation were you trying to kill them. (It would also be expensive.) However, you would, of course, be 'composting' them in situ.;)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_sulfamate

Greatgimp

mysparrow wrote: »

Not sure I'd trust myself with a chainsaw, there might be a bit more than dirt on it after I'd finished!

I wouldn't trust you either. I never meant for you to hack away with the saw, I meant the owner!

squack

if the stumps are cut off at ground level, i would be tempted to leave the roots in, just plant the new shrubs to one side then hide the cut off leylandii stumps with soil or a scattering of bark. :money:

hartcjhart

if you want rid of them pronto hire a man and machine will probably take him a day