Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
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] |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
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] |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
Reply |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Hand held tools for pulling/digging out roots and stems from woody brush | Gardening | |||
Pampas grass: digging out | United Kingdom | |||
Digging out a pond? | North Carolina | |||
Bloody dogs digging out bulbs | Australia | |||
[IBC] Advice needed on Plant Virus on a quince | Bonsai |