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