"andy" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 14:24:32 +0100, Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

The message
from "Bioboffin" contains these words:


The job will be much easier using the right tool, which is a mattock
(or a pickaxe would do if that's what you happen to have).A mattock
looks a bit like a pickaxe but has a pointy smashing bit at one end of
the blade and a broader flat digging edge at the other.(Use each end to
break into the soil round a clump, hack roots or winkle underneath
them..then use the handle as a lever). Either borrow, or buy one for a
fraction of £500 at a builder's yard.


Wickes sell em - abat 20 quid if I
remember rightly ;-)

I ordered one from tooled-up.com

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=14881

which arrived on Friday morning (only 8 days after order placed!!!). I got
fed up waiting for the pick-axe handle to go with it, and bought a handle
from Wickes for £6.99. Spent about an hour yesterday and removed 8 roots.
This morning arms a bit sore (I'm more used to thumping keyboards). I expect
to have completed the job this weekend in a total of about two hours. (and
for this the guy from L.A. Tree Services of Peteroborough wanted £500).

Many thanks to the members of this newsgroup, who pointed me in the right
direction and gave me the motivation to do it myself.

John.