"B & J" wrote
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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



are you telling me we're ALL removing our old Forsythia's? I finally got a
hair up my bum and whacked MY two huge 25+ year old forsythia's yesterday,
Squire coming home just as I was starting on the second bush and throwing
them in the driveway.........he showed me how to bundle it all up and we
rolled it and tied it up and he will haul it unfortunatly somewhere to burn
later when it dries a bit more. I wish I had a shredder. The stubbs are
still there, and the ground is fast drying out despite the soaking rains
we've had the last three days. Are you telling me I will need a tractor to
pull these things outa the clay????!? I was gonna try the pick ax to tease
most of them out. Since coppicing them both to the ground and opening up the
area directly into the west yard where it's raised beds and more chaos, I
really DON'T want them now. I'm over it. I can always plant the two little
babies down in the woods and see how tough they really are..........If you
hear a back crying tomorrow it will be mine. I am going to start whacking
away at the stubbs and roots and see if I can dislodge some of these roots.
Wish me luck (I have clay and glacial rocks too, John.)

madgardener