In message , Marc & Mel
writes
Hi!

I'm in the process of dismantling my hedge in the front garden, it is 18
feet long and has 5 main shoots.

5 stumps I guess that means?

I have already cut back the actual hedge so
all that is left is the 'shoot's. I need to know how to get rid of these,
somebody told me to hack them as low down as possible then put Diesel on the
stumps to kill them off. Is this correct?

Diesel is not the correct thing at all.

1. it won't do the soil much good (as well as being technically illegal
I guess)

2. It probably won't work well anyway.

The answer depends on what sort of tree/shrub formed the hedge - conifer
or deciduous and what do you intend to do with the land afterwards. e.g.
if you want to put up a fence then you probably need to remove the
stumps. In this case get you self a mattock and a spade and away you go.
I would probably do this anyway - 5 stumps, unless we are talking great
big tree stumps won't be too bad job

Assuming you don't need to do the latter, then yes, cut down the stems
close to the ground. If the tree's are conifer then usually they will
not regrow and can just be left to rot away if that doesn't cause any
problems.

If they are deciduous then they will normally regrow - it's how
coppicing works - they will need removing or killing. If you want to do
the latter you can buy 'stump Killer' from garden centres and hardware
shops - just follow the instructions.

--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds