"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Stand Up Old" contains these words:


Also is there any standard way of digging up large shrubs without
snapping
forks?

The aim is to move the shrub with a firm unbroken rootbal, with all
the soil as firmly attached to roots as possible.

Use a spade to slice down through soil, the depth of the blade, in a
joined -up circle right round the shrub. The aim is to cut cleanly
through any roots in that soil, so don't make the circle too close to
the shrub or it won't have enough roots left.

Then go round with the spade in a wider circle, digging out a moat
around your first, inner circle. Now the shrub and its rootball are
standing like an island . Try to get the spade down inside the moat and
slice underneath the shrub, gradually working all the way round until
eventually its root clump is cut free from the soil it stands in. You
may have to get some one to help you rock the shrub and its rootball
from side to side so you can cut right beneath it, using loppers to
sever big roots.

Next you need a big sheet of strong plastic . Rock the rootball to
one side and get the sheet half way under. Rock to the other side and
pull the rest of the sheet through.(The same technique as changing the
bottom sheet on a bed with someone lying in it). Wrap the sheet round
the roots and heave on the sheet to pull the whole caboodle out of the
ground . On a huge shrub you may need some short planks to make a slope
to slide it up.

Don't use a fork because a) its not strong enough and b) its tines
will tend to loosen and break up the soil around the rootball (the
opposite of what's required).

Janet.


That technique is similar to one I use. I find it easier to make one side of
the circular trench deeper and pull the whole rootball into the deeper side.
From then on if the whole thing is to heavy to lift by hand I use ropes
under the rootball and then your sheet method.