View Single Post
  #3   Report Post  
Old 20-06-2003, 03:32 AM
B & J
 
Posts: n/a
Default Removing a forsythia

wrote in message
...
nah.. not deep. whack it down leaving about 2 feet of upright trunks to

get a grip
on, start chopping around the outside. my DH uses a pick ax sorta thing,

gets the
tip under and works around it popping it out . then uses the flat end part

to whack
the roots. rock it back and forth to pop the rest of the roots. Ingrid

It depends a bit on the soil, Ingrid. In sand or loam the digging is
relatively easy, but I removed four from heavy clay with rocks in it, which
proved a bit of a challenge. First, I soaked the soil a couple of times a
few days in advance. Then I cut the bushes down to a couple of feet with the
loppers, and finally I used the pick ax to dig a trench around each of the
plants. They refused to come out for me even using a pry. My neighbor who
has a tractor with a front end loader came over, and we hooked a log chain
around the base of each and eventually were able to pull them out. It was
not an easy task. BTW, I liked the forsythia, but they were in the wrong
place so I planted two of the pulled out stubs and gave the other two to the
neighbor. The bark was stripped in many places by the chain and the roots
looked shredded, but all four survived and blossomed this spring. They're
tough!

John