Newbie - Privet Hedge Stumps
quarkrad
Posts: 23
Apologies if this has been asked before. I have removed a privet hedge separating two parts of the garden and would like to put down some top soil and seed grass to join up the two parts of the garden. I now have a 10m x 2ft strip between the lawns with numerous stumps (from 2" to 4" diameter) about 3" high from ground level. I have tried digging one of them out (I have a few inches top soil and then clay) and think this is going take years. So now I'm thinking about using a poison/herbicide to kill the roots. I have done some research and reading about using things such as diesel, paraffin etc I realise I need use the proper product. As a newbie it is hard to know what do - I have found products that kill tree roots but are these over the top in the sense that I intend to re seed? Any advice much appreciated.
Posts
Gosh! I wouldn't use those products, you'll never grow anything there again. Have you tried an iron bar and a small pick axe, I wouldnt have thought privet that bigger rooted plants. We took out a 100' row of 30 year old conifers and got it all out.
Quarkrad use a sharp spade and chop down vertically to cut the lateral roots first. Then cut in at 30 degrees to get under the main stem and chop them out. Using anything else is grass suicide.
If your going to try and remove the roots I would buy a mattock, you can chop and dig at the same time.
We had the same problem with a lonicera hedge. We found a company called Stump Out who specialised in stump grinding. Their machine chewed up and spat out all the roots, leaving loose soil that was almost ready to plant in. I did have to go over it with a fork and remove a few bucketfuls of rooty bits, and then we could plant a new hedge. It did cost us, but it was money well spent.
After that, you will feel as if you have done a work out at the local gym but it's very satisfying when the stumps start showing movement and you eventually remove them from the ground
Yes I have a Matlock - although didn't realise it was called that! How important is it to get any/all of the lateral roots out? If I crop away and get the main stump out but there are a few lateral roots should I did out (into the lawn) and remove all traces of the hedge root ball?