How to get rid of bushes/shrubs?

firsttimebuyer2013

I've got some bushes/shrubs that I need to remove to relay a path and give me access to my side gate. However, I'm not sure of the best way to go about it!

I'm happyish to go the hard route of cutting it all back and digging out the roots but I suspect they are pretty deep. Some of the stems are a couple of inches thick.

What other means can I use? Are there any 'weed killers' that will work? :undecided

bouicca21

I think it probably depends on what kind of bushes they are and how much effort you want to put on.

Geezer next door removed a forsythia hedge because it was straggly (never occurred to him to trim it). When I came to lay the patio there was a mass of roots to remove. Easy enough for a couple of strong blokes - but totally beyond my abilities (and patience). Elsewhere in the garden were roots that required a stump grinder (and when I came to install the new pond I found that even the stump grinder hadn't disposed of all of them).

spadoosh

Trim and dig them out.

Not as hard as it sounds.

Had about 20 hedges to get rid of dotted with concrete posts amongst it. Only took a couple of days on my own. Just rimmed as much as possible and then spent a lot of time wiggling. Got a lot easier when i had a scaffold pole to pry them out. Avoid using spades or forks for the prying, went through about 3 of them.

moneyistooshorttomention

I hired a man with a mini-digger.

It's a very quick and easy job to them.

lessonlearned

Hiring a man with a digger is genius.

If you are not in too much of a hurry, this is a job best done in the autumn when the sap is falling and when the shrubs either die back or fest.

Cut trunks down to ground level, then inject the stumps with poison. This will slowly kill the roots over the next six months or so. Come Spring the stumps and roots will be much easier to remove.

I did this last autum and it worked really well.

Check around 4 weeks after the first application of poison to see if it is working, if not give the stumps a top up injection.

Davesnave

Don't be tempted by self-drive digger hire, unless the job is very small.

Someone skilled with a digger will get far more done than a novice, and they'll know how to get the result required without accidentally 'modifying' other parts of the landscape! Just about anyone sentient can drive a dumper, though.

I garden on a relatively large scale, so I save up jobs for when there's a digger here. We might be digging a drain, but half an hour moving trees, which would be impossible to relocate any other way, helps to offset the cost and achieves instant results. The only problem is that shifting trees and bushes around can only be done in late autumn/winter/early spring.....which aren't the best times to have a digger chugging around the garden, although this spring was very dry for us.

Elsewhere

If they are the sort of shrubs that are expensive to buy, could you offer them on Freecycle to anyone who is willing to dig them out?

lardlikesdogs

firsttimebuyer2013 wrote: »

I've got some bushes/shrubs that I need to remove to relay a path and give me access to my side gate. However, I'm not sure of the best way to go about it!

I'm happyish to go the hard route of cutting it all back and digging out the roots but I suspect they are pretty deep. Some of the stems are a couple of inches thick.

What other means can I use? Are there any 'weed killers' that will work? :undecided

Right then , Purchase a Mattock and a pair of heavy duty loppers.

Prune the shrubs down but leave the main trunks about 5ft high .

Shrubs on the whole are multi stemmed but if they are very big then you can leave one or two main stems so you have something to pull on.

Next with the mattock dig around the base you should then hit 4/5 main roots .
Either cut through with the mattock or the loppers .
Once you have done this the shrub should start to move , Push and pull on the main stem and it should snap off and then the whole shrub should then come out.

You will find the mattock is the best piece of kit you have ever purchased. I have removed large shrubs and small/medium trees over the years and the mattock is the only tool I use .
Don't use a spade/shovel/fork as you will only break them.

Something like this one but shop around .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diy-Roughneck-64252-Mattock-glass-Handle/dp/B003CT4DAY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465131150&sr=8-1&keywords=mattock+axe

I_have_spoken

Have a wonder about and see if any council staff are doing groundwork locally and offer them cash-in-hand for a job after 3pm Friday.