Digging out a quince
 

In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it. With
plenty of patience and secateurs, we've cut it down to about a foot
above ground level, and repeatedly sprayed it with weedkiller, so it's
mostly dead.

But digging the thing out is proving to be impossible. It's a mass of
small, tough roots - the spade won't cut them, and it's firmly
implanted in the soil. Snipping through all those roots would take
months of hard labour.

We've got it down to about 6' x 2', bounded on two side by a wooden
fence and a concrete path, which limits our options for violent
attack.

Short of leaving it for a year or two and letting it rot (which
forestalls all our plans for the front garden for that time), is there
any quicker way of getting the thing out?

To make matters worse, we've got a much larger one in our back garden,
and we were hoping to uproot that too in the current season, to free
up the area for other things. That's bounded on three sides by a
lawn, with a concrete path across the fourth.

Please advise. We're despairing.
--
John H

Digging out a quince
 

"John Hatpin" wrote in message
...
In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it. With
plenty of patience and secateurs, we've cut it down to about a foot
above ground level, and repeatedly sprayed it with weedkiller, so
it's
mostly dead.

But digging the thing out is proving to be impossible. It's a mass
of
small, tough roots - the spade won't cut them, and it's firmly
implanted in the soil. Snipping through all those roots would take
months of hard labour.

We've got it down to about 6' x 2', bounded on two side by a wooden
fence and a concrete path, which limits our options for violent
attack.

Short of leaving it for a year or two and letting it rot (which
forestalls all our plans for the front garden for that time), is
there
any quicker way of getting the thing out?

To make matters worse, we've got a much larger one in our back
garden,
and we were hoping to uproot that too in the current season, to free
up the area for other things. That's bounded on three sides by a
lawn, with a concrete path across the fourth.

Please advise. We're despairing.

Why not get a profesional gardener with a root grinder to come and
grind up as much of the root as possible in situ, and just garden on
what's left of the roots?

Franz

Digging out a quince
 

In article , Franz Heymann
writes


Why not get a profesional gardener with a root grinder to come and
grind up as much of the root as possible in situ, and just garden on
what's left of the roots?

I think he's talking about chaenomeles 'japanese quince' rather than a
quince tree - would a root grinder work on a mass of roots and soil, as
opposed to a single large tap root?
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Digging out a quince
 

In article ,
"Franz Heymann" writes:
|
| Why not get a profesional gardener with a root grinder to come and
| grind up as much of the root as possible in situ, and just garden on
| what's left of the roots?

It's almost certainly Chaenomeles, not Cydonia.

Hard work with a spade and grub-axe, is the only solution. But I
strongly recommend getting one of the latter, as it will make the
work MUCH easier. Those devices are also known as pick-mattocks,
and consist of a pick one side and a 4" wide blade at right angles
to the handle the other. When you lift one, it seems like a tool
for a hairy-armed navvy, but they are remarkably easy to use.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Digging out a quince
 

John Hatpin wrote:
In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it. With
plenty of patience and secateurs, we've cut it down to about a foot
above ground level, and repeatedly sprayed it with weedkiller, so it's
mostly dead.

But digging the thing out is proving to be impossible. It's a mass of
small, tough roots - the spade won't cut them, and it's firmly
implanted in the soil. Snipping through all those roots would take
months of hard labour.



get yourself a mattock aka Ground axe.

Wickes do a good one for around £20.

ideal tool for the job

pk

Digging out a quince
 

"PK" wrote in message
...
John Hatpin wrote:
get yourself a mattock aka Ground axe.

Wickes do a good one for around £20.

ideal tool for the job

I'll second that!
We've got the Wickes Mattock - lovely bit of kit with a fibreglass shaft.
It's HIS really, but I find it useful for all sorts of obs - including
digging out a willow with masses of spreading roots.

Digging out a quince
 

In message , John Hatpin
writes
In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it. With
plenty of patience and secateurs, we've cut it down to about a foot
above ground level, and repeatedly sprayed it with weedkiller, so it's
mostly dead.

You have made your life more difficult. Dead tree like things are a lot
easier to prise out manually if you leave a nice strong 4-5 foot trunk
on top of the roots. Then you have something to really get hold of and
provide leverage.

But digging the thing out is proving to be impossible. It's a mass of
small, tough roots - the spade won't cut them, and it's firmly
implanted in the soil. Snipping through all those roots would take
months of hard labour.

Heavier boots and an axe might allow you to make some progress. But take
care - a sharp axe is not fussy what it cuts through.

We've got it down to about 6' x 2',

??? What size is it? WxHxD

Short of leaving it for a year or two and letting it rot (which
forestalls all our plans for the front garden for that time), is there
any quicker way of getting the thing out?

Stump grinder is probably the fastest option. An old pear tree stump in
my garden took about 15 years to rot down naturally.

To make matters worse, we've got a much larger one in our back garden,
and we were hoping to uproot that too in the current season, to free
up the area for other things. That's bounded on three sides by a
lawn, with a concrete path across the fourth.

Please advise. We're despairing.

You might be better off getting someone with the right tools in to deal
with both of them together.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

Digging out a quince
 

In article , Martin Brown
writes
In message , John Hatpin
writes

We've got it down to about 6' x 2',

??? What size is it? WxHxD

It's almost certainly a chaenomeles not a cydonia ;-)


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Digging out a quince
 

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:48:53 +0100, John Hatpin wrote:

In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it.

Please advise. We're despairing.

Elderly quinces are pretty much ineradicable. Their roots go down
to China and will sucker when you've murdered the top growth.

Learn to love it.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

Digging out a quince
 

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
"Sue da Nimm" . writes:

I'll second that!
We've got the Wickes Mattock - lovely bit of kit with a fibreglass
shaft. It's HIS really, but I find it useful for all sorts of obs -
including digging out a willow with masses of spreading roots.

Fibreglass? Boggle. Mine is a traditional ash pickaxe handle,
as bought from an agricultural warehouse :-)

Whatever. Those of us with one know how much easier it makes
all sorts of hard digging jobs. I think that we are up to 5
recommendations now :-)


I've had both. the fibreglass gives less shock up the arms when you hit a
rock! But minne did give up the ghost yesterday - one too many stumpe
levered out of the ground. Off to wickees again in the morning!

Of all my garden tools the mattock is by some margin the best value of the
lot. From digging out roots to breaking up virgin ground to srtipping turf -
the ideal tool for each job.


pk

Digging out a quince
 

On 23 Apr 2004 07:25:42 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:


Hard work with a spade and grub-axe, is the only solution. But I
strongly recommend getting one of the latter, as it will make the
work MUCH easier. Those devices are also known as pick-mattocks,
and consist of a pick one side and a 4" wide blade at right angles
to the handle the other. When you lift one, it seems like a tool
for a hairy-armed navvy, but they are remarkably easy to use.

Somebody out there *knows* I've forgotten who borrowed my mattock.
I'll be round to collect it if I ever remember who it was :~[

Rod

Weed my email address to reply
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

Digging out a quince
 

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
"Sue da Nimm" . writes:
|
| I'll second that!
| We've got the Wickes Mattock - lovely bit of kit with a fibreglass shaft.
| It's HIS really, but I find it useful for all sorts of obs - including
| digging out a willow with masses of spreading roots.

Fibreglass? Boggle. Mine is a traditional ash pickaxe handle,
as bought from an agricultural warehouse :-)

Whatever. Those of us with one know how much easier it makes
all sorts of hard digging jobs. I think that we are up to 5
recommendations now :-)

Thanks, people. I'll go and get one of those and give it a go.
--
John H

Digging out a quince
 

In article ,
John Hatpin wrote:

What kind of tools would you recommend? A mattock seems to come
highly recommended, so I plan to buy one.

Make sure it is a proper one - not an African (Dutch) hoe. It should
be made out of the same gauge material as a navvy's pick.

The other two tools worth getting are a solid spade (i.e. one that
won't break when you lever with it), and something to cut 1" roots
with. The latter can be a hand-axe, loppers, some kinds of saw,
and so on.

Both of the pick-mattock and the solid spade may be easier to obtain
from an agricultural or building trade supplier.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Digging out a quince
 

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 23:24:09 +0100, John Hatpin wrote:

Rodger Whitlock wrote:

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:48:53 +0100, John Hatpin wrote:

In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it.

Please advise. We're despairing.

Elderly quinces are pretty much ineradicable. Their roots go down
to China and will sucker when you've murdered the top growth.

Is that true of the Japanese quince?

That's what I'm referring to. Quince trees, sensu proper, are a
piece of cake.


Learn to love it.

That's going to be tough (like the plant) - it just doesn't fit in
with our plans.

Time to change those plans.

I'm really not kidding. I had an elderly quince under the bedroom
window at my old house. It had been there roughly 25 years when I
bought the place and sort-of sprawled this way and that and
didn't look awfully good. It had thrown up any number of suckers,
was definitely not a single-stem affair by the time it fell into
my lap.

At one point I contemplated tying it to the bumper of my car and
pulliing it out, but decided that there was considerable risk of
tearing the bumper off the car. So much for *that* bright idea.

What I finally did was follow a friend's advice. Every spring
when the flower buds began to swell, I would cut back all
branches to the first flower bud (first as you count inward from
the growing tip). This eliminated all the purely vegetative
growth. After a few years the shrub had developed something of a
bonsai-ish look and was fairly presentable.

I should add that it had flowers of an especially beautiful
bright coral color, and I was pleased to turn a messy affair into
something worth looking at.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

Digging out a quince
 

Martin Brown wrote:

In message , John Hatpin
writes
In the process of transforming our front garden, we've come across a
pretty elderly quince that defies all attempts to remove it. With
plenty of patience and secateurs, we've cut it down to about a foot
above ground level, and repeatedly sprayed it with weedkiller, so it's
mostly dead.

You have made your life more difficult. Dead tree like things are a lot
easier to prise out manually if you leave a nice strong 4-5 foot trunk
on top of the roots. Then you have something to really get hold of and
provide leverage.

In this case, there's no trunk to speak of. It's just a tangled mass
of thing, wiry vegetation down there.

We've got it down to about 6' x 2',

??? What size is it? WxHxD

In the WxHxD order, it's about 6x1x2 (feet).

Short of leaving it for a year or two and letting it rot (which
forestalls all our plans for the front garden for that time), is there
any quicker way of getting the thing out?

Stump grinder is probably the fastest option. An old pear tree stump in
my garden took about 15 years to rot down naturally.

Ouch. That's a long time - but being a pear tree, presumably that was
a big, single stump?

To make matters worse, we've got a much larger one in our back garden,
and we were hoping to uproot that too in the current season, to free
up the area for other things. That's bounded on three sides by a
lawn, with a concrete path across the fourth.

Please advise. We're despairing.

You might be better off getting someone with the right tools in to deal
with both of them together.

What kind of tools would you recommend? A mattock seems to come
highly recommended, so I plan to buy one.
--
John H