After a frustrating day on Sunday digging down, and down...and down, we found the privet hedge roots are still at least 6'' thick.
I estimate the 8' of hedge we need removed will have at least 6/8 main roots along the length and to make the project even more difficult there are two 6'' x 6'' old gateposts that have got to come out too.
At least we know now it isn't job to do with my best stainless steel spade (which is now broken!)
Has anyone tackled this sort of thing and what's the best way to go about it?
Pat
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Go to William Hill and hedge your bets. Seriously - I got a tree surgeon garden clearer bod in. Had a problem with an overgrown garden and he turned it into the Gobi Desert
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need to know whats going in its place first. the outcome of that decides if you need to remove all the roots
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Is there room for vehicle access? If so find a friend with a land rover or small tractor and use that to pull the bushes out. Or use a hand winch if there isn't enough room.
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Nothing going in it's place, only enough of something solid to allow a car to be driven over it regularly.
Friend in the village has a JCB but it's not taxed or insured for the road and all attempts to persuade him to do an evening visit under cover of darkness have failed.
Pat
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What are the old fence posts made of? If wood, then a professional outfit with a stump grinder would get rid of the roots in no time and the bits of fence posts in the way.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFpmtIm6AWc
I know it's a stump grinder but if it can get at the roots it will make easy work of this. Might cost a few quid to get someone in to do the job but it would be fairly quick.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 4 Dec 13 at 08:22
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Landie nd a winch, or a windlass of course...!
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>> Landie nd a winch, or a windlass of course...!
>>
The most likely source of power!!
Many moons ago when I removed a smaller hedge A length of rope tied to the back axle of my car did the job. Would not do that today.
None of the fancy kit available to me or the £££s. :-)
After the hedge went I then attacked what I thought was an old yellowing house brick in the soil. I then discovered it was the rusting gas main. Steep learning curve - do not rush things :-)
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>>What are the old fence posts made of?<<
Concrete, and they're enormous rtj, that's why I'm not sure a mini digger would pull them out.
...and then we have to move them!
Pat
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>>Concrete, and they're enormous rtj, that's why I'm not sure a mini digger would pull them out.
Hire a Kango and break em up.
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As Zero says only need to get the roots cut off just below ground level and poison. Concrete gate posts easy too as concrete will smash off the reinforcing wire with a sledgehammer and then you can hacksaw/angle grind that off just below ground level taking them away as rubble.
Done loads of such work in the past but now we use a brilliant guy in the village who is quick and fair on prices, he has a stump grinder too.
As mentioned above do take care in case you come across the gas or water services... they can be more shallow than you think.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 4 Dec 13 at 09:02
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>>....old fence posts made of Concrete, and they're enormous , that's why I'm not sure a mini digger would pull them out.
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Loosen the soil around the base and then you have a good lever to complete loosening.
Dragging them out and disposal is another thing.
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>> >>What are the old fence posts made of?<<
>>
>> Concrete, and they're enormous rtj, that's why I'm not sure a mini digger would pull
>> them out.
>>
>> ...and then we have to move them!
>>
>> Pat
>>
Could you "borrow" something with a Hiab and use that to pull them?
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>> Nothing going in it's place, only enough of something solid to allow a car to
>> be driven over it regularly.
In that case you only need to remove roots as deep as the something solid, drill holes in what roots you can see and poison them. Cover up the crime with the something solid.
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We removed a stone gatepost at a friend's house years ago. Dug a trench a foot or so deep leading from the base of the post. Smacked the post a few times at ground level until it cracked. Then pushed it over into the trench and flagged over it with the new driveway.
Probly still there !
Ted
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Manually it' s hard work. You need to dig a trench around the stumps an then start to undermine them. Saw or axe through the major roots. As you have found a normal spade is not up to the job. You need something called a digging bar to cut through the remaining roots and lever out the stumps.
www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-1700-mm-Digging-Bar/dp/B000T9R26W
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Take one petrol powered saw. Dress in safety gear.
Cut hedge as low as possible consistent with safety. Borrow a tractor and run over what is left. Flatten into ground. Apply sodium chlorate to kill hedge .
Cover in roadstone and level.
Job done..
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When I was about 15, me and me ole mam lived in a flat belonging to two gay men...about 1961. They wanted to get rid of a privet hedge about 8 ft high.
Hal, the more butch of the two worked at Gorton Tank where they made steam locomotives for the Great Central Rly. He came home one day with a huge cold chisel with a sharpened, flat end.
It was about 3 ft long. Possibly made from a coupling rod or something. This was used, with a sledge hammer at the top end to cut through the roots. Very effective istr.
Hal died that year...aged 61...as old as the century......not due to the chisel, though !
Ted
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That is essentially what a digging bar is Ted. Like a giant cold chisel although mine is 5 feet long. Mine will slice through roots easily. Needs to be kept sharp. Heavy work though and you need to wear steel capped boots while using it.
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>>Apply sodium chlorate to kill hedge
No longer available.
Used to make great fireworks!
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Removed a private hedge once around our font garden Pat.Took some doing also broke a spade handle.Used a pitchfork one of the toughest hedge I ever removed.
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I can see where that digging bar would be useful CG.
We used the chainsaw to cut one part of it down on Sunday before we started digging.
Time and daylight are the problem at the moment though.
Weekends only and after a lie in from 2/3am starts half the day has already gone,
The local paper had an advert in yesterday from a man in the next village and he is coming round this morning to give an estimate.
As with most females, I don't want this going on forever, I want it done now!
Pat
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>> As with most females, I don't want this going on forever, I want it done now!
>>
>> Pat
>>
I've never understood women.
They say they want things over and done quickly, and when they are, women complain... ;-)
Last edited by: swiss tony on Thu 5 Dec 13 at 06:44
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And some of them never take the easy option, even when its pointed out to them.
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>>over and done quickly, and when they are, women complain... ;-) <<
There is a happy medium but it takes a good man to find it!
Z, the easy option would have been to let the landlord do it.
When I rang as a matter of courtesy to ask his permission he was concerned that it didn't cost us anything and about the hard work involved. He offered to come round and remove the posts with a block of wood, a couple of G clamps and a car jack,
He's an excellent landlord but has a terrible sense of timing.
He added the words...'as soon as we have time'
From previous experience that's likely to be September 2017!
Pat
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Systemic weedkiller.
Cut it down to groundlevel. Wait until it re-sprouts, leave until the new shoots are about a foot high, then spray. Don't cut off the new growth until it has withered.
If it regrows, repeat.
Or drill a 1/2" hole into the base of each stump. Pour in sodium chlorate crystals, seal with a bung.
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Or same technique but with BSK brush killer. More advice here:
apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=229/
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I know it's too late now, but you should start by taking off all the branches, leaving the main stem as long as possible.
This gives you a lever to pull the tree around with.
You don't need to take out all the roots. Use the lever to expose them in turn, and cut them off, eventually you get to the tap root, and can release the bole.
They will ultimately rot down but you can add one of the chemical treatments if you wish.
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Years ago, my friend wanted to remove a tree stump from his front garden. All attempts to dig it out had failed. Then he had a brainwave and attached a rope to the front of his company Cortina estate at one end and the stump at the other. He engaged reverse and started to pull the stump with the car.
The good news was that the car was able to overcome the strength of the stump and out it came.
The bad news was that it came out so suddenly he reversed the Cortina into and through his front porch...
It's hard to say who was the most upset about this. He certainly was, his wife possibly more so and as for his employers...
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Update:
>>He's an excellent landlord but has a terrible sense of timing.
He added the words...'as soon as we have time'
From previous experience that's likely to be September 2017!
<<
I take it all back!
He turned up yesterday with his 'mate' who was about 104 years old, a landrover, two spades, an angle grinder with a diamond disc (?) and a strop.
3 hours later and many cups of coffee laced with Christmas spirit, the job was done.
Our task over this weekend is to flatten it down and see if we really do need any rubble, gravel or to hire a wacker thingy or if we can get away with reversing the cars over it!
Now...to all those cynical landlords on here, good tenants get good landlords but the first move has to come from either you or them, or both:)
Pat
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So not content with encouraging a neighbour to break the law by driving an untaxed and - more importantly - uninsured digger down the public highway, you gave alcohol to somebody in charge of an angle grinder and a landrover - which I'm guessing they may well have taken home over the public highway.
I'm astonished and surprised at you, pda, the frequency with which you get on your high horse about bosses treating workers badly, and here you are, thus.
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>>I'm astonished and surprised at you, pda, the frequency with which you get on your high horse about bosses treating workers badly, and here you are, thus. <<
If it winds you up that much Mapmaker, I can do far, far worse than that Bah Humbug!!!!
Pat
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Your sanctimonious support for the workers winds me up.
Your inclination to get your chums into trouble merely astonishes me.
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>> Your sanctimonious support for the workers winds me up.
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And long may it continue to do so because it will never change,
>> Your inclination to get your chums into trouble merely astonishes me.
>>
I have posted many times that I live at the end of a road to nowhere if you had been paying attention. The only thing past our house down the track that goes miles into the Fen is a farm....so I think once again your assumption has been just a tad premature mapmaker.
Now, back off, it's the season of goodwill to all men, and that includes me too.
Pat
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Aaaaah... there's many a poor man and his Land Rover vanished into The Mere in the dead of night like. They do say they do see a great quivering nother glass of the Witch'o'th'Fens's deadly paint stripper floatin just out of reach and drive off the road into the Mere cryin piteous like: No, No!
That be what they do say. I'm not sayin it's true and I'm not sayin it's not. But they do say that on moonless nights (contd p.94)
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>>He turned up yesterday with his 'mate' who was about 104 years old, a landrover, two spades, an angle grinder with a diamond disc (?) and a strop.<<
I am somewhat surprised by the racist description of his helpers :) Maybe life in the Fens is 50 years behind the times?
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>>Maybe life in the Fens is 50 years behind the times?<<
And some:)
Pat
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It's the local inbreeding wot does it...
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Removing a privet hedge. - Runfer D'Hills
