Don't believe people who say the stumps rot quickly. The ones in our last garden were still in the same condition when we moved from being cut down when we moved in 25 years before.
Go with Obelisk's advice. Hard work, but very doable. We removed over 100 feet of conifer hedge here.
Don't believe people who say the stumps rot quickly. The ones in our last garden were still in the same condition when we moved from being cut down when we moved in 25 years before.
Go with Obelisk's advice. Hard work, but very doable. We removed over 100 feet of conifer hedge here.
Same here, 100’ run of them and some more in other places, the best tool for the job is a mattock, as you chop down cut the roots as you go with large pruners, they are not very deep rooted, all I used on the soil after that was chicken pellets and some home made compost. Planted up the same year.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I’ve taken quite a few out over the years. I’d leave around 3 foot so there is something to get hold of and then starting at the back with a hand fork or trowel just scrap away the soil until you find the roots and chop through them. I’ve found in the past a floor bar can be really useful, it’s heavy and if you use the flattened end to stab/hit the roots you can soon go through them. The length of the floor bar can also be used to help leaver some of the root out. I’ve said i’d start at the back because once you are through the back roots that go under the fence, the easier it will be to wobble it and find the rest of the roots.
I've cut down 8 huge ones in this garden and just cut them to the ground. Never had a problem with growing close by I've even planted trees within 4 ft of the old conifer base and they have all done well. I just add farmyard manure and fish, blood and bone as a dressing/mulch each year and the soil is fine.
The trunk won't rot but the roots will. When we bought our house in Harrow in 1983 there was a row of 30' high conifers along the eastern boundary of our back garden - Horribly dark and took up loads of space so we lopped off the tops leaving 1m high stumps and used those to rock loose as much root as possible. Then we pulled as much out as possible without destroying the neighbour's fence.
After just one winter of rain and snow the roots rooted quickly enough and we ended up with a whole new border and a path which had been invisible beforehand.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
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good luck
Or maybe get yourself a reciprocating saw?.. which what I use for roots.
Bone idle. I'd chop it down as low as possible and plant something in front of it
After just one winter of rain and snow the roots rooted quickly enough and we ended up with a whole new border and a path which had been invisible beforehand.