How the heck do I get rid of these stumps??

I have a raised bed on the side of my house. Unfortunately the previous owners of said bed did not take care of it. As a result, there were five small trees that were rooted in the bed. I would say they were maybe four or five years into growth. I have chopped them down about a year ago when I cleaned out the bed. Well, I didn't get around to planting in the bed or amending the soil this year. So they sprouted sucker branches off the old stumps and grew bushes. I recently decided to tackle the bed and cut off all the sucker branches and commenced to try and dig the stumps out. Well, after an hour on the first one and it still isn't out, I think I may need an alternative. What suggestions does anyone possibly have?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This reminds me of my first garden, where the previous owner had planted climbing roses at the base of each fencepost. The roses were out of control, and a mess of mildew and blackspot, so I decided to dig them out. I dug, and pulled. Dug some more, pulled harder. Still no extraction. Dug deeper. Finally, I borrowed my DH's small hacksaw and sawed the roots off at the lowest point I could get at. I'm not really recommending this method, though, as I ruined the hacksaw blade, and there must be easier ways!

If the stumps are small you can dig them out but you need to cut the roots around the stump. The best tool is a grubbing hoe with an axe on one end (NOT a pick ax which is too heavy and the pick part doesn't really cut roots). I picked a nice one up at Ace Hardware labelled as a fireman's axe with a hoe/axe combo and a fiberglass handle. Use the hoe part to dig the dirt out and the axe part to cut the roots. Once the stump is out you can follow the biggest roots to get them out. If the stumps are bigger than you are willing to tackle then hire someone who does stump grinding - it takes no time and is well worth the money.

Or you could put a chain around them and pull them out with a truck or tractor.

Isn't there some sort of stump remover that you can get? I think you drill holes in the stump and pour it in. I'm not sure about that tho. I have a large maple stump to remove, but it's in a location that I can't get the pickup close to it.

Make sure you have a good hitch if you use your truck (no bumpers) and also have enough tree above ground to hook on to.

Eventually stumps will rot on their own provided you keep suckers cut (and possibly sprayed). Drilling holes and putting compost on top will speed up the process. Depends on how long you want to wait.

I was just at Home Depo yesterday and they had some 'stuff" to put on stumps to help decompose them. You drill holes into the side at an angle and from the top to intersect with the side drilled holes, pour in this stump remover and add water.

Of course if your stumps weren't RIGHT next to the house there is the other method that someone else mentioned on another thread. Build a charcoal fire ON TOP of the stump and let it burn down and thru. I thought the person was kidding me until I also read it on the instructions of the stump remover jar as an alternative to chemicals! On DG I have read of others having a lot of success with the charcoal method. We hired a guy to come in and grind our big stump out. It was only $50 and the tree was BIG!!!

Good luck and keep us posted on what you find successful.
Pat

Maybe only $50 in Boise, but I am SURE it's got to be more than that around here. I can't imagine anything that costs that little, these days, especially not a service.

I had 16 trees taken down last year and the stump grinding for all of them was $200 (he missed two in the back of the lot but they are starting to rot) but the bill for taking the trees down and chipping them up was $1700.

You might be right Carrie, but you'll never know unless you ASK. I was pleasantly surprised at the price myself, that was only a couple of years ago. We had a total of 3 tree stumps ground at $50 each, including the one that was a HUGE Ash tree.

I think you can rent one of those stump grinders at a tool rental.
Also I would try cutting the stump as flush as possible and covering with newspapers then mulch. I used this method with three Hibiscus (hardy) that were twenty years old. I did this in the fall then planted the bed in the spring. You know what I just remember I did that with a spruce (25') in a raised bed but I covered it with black plastic over winter.
The chemical product is not a quick result.
Good luck!
Aline

Several grinding services that I've priced were all 165 or more. And these are just little sapling stumps. Not huge ones. So there's just no way I will pay that. Plus there were two they couldn't even do because they were too close to the foundation. I mean, they are almost flush with the house. I finally got one dug out. Only four left....

I hate to interject with this sad comment , but please be warned that stump pulling with a vehicle can be very dangerous.
My BIL died 2 years ago while doing that exact thing. The tractor flipped over backwards and on top of him.
He died in front of his Mother,Wife and Grandchildren before help arrived. These were small stumps from large bushes. You really have to know what you're doing and I would not want anyone else to take the chance on being injured or worse attempting this. He was such a good man who helped alot of people, gone in a flash.

I have used the black plastic method with great success, but it took a few weeks to work.Temps should be hot outside.
The stump grinding service is the least amount of trouble and the quickest.

So sorry to hear about your BIL. That must've been devastating.

I remember someone who pulled a stump (small shrub actually) with his Oldsmobile Cutlass and when it finally gave, the stump flew threw his back window shattering it. Luckily he was not hurt. I've also seen bumpers pulled off as well.

A winch or come-along may aid in pulling a stump out but side roots should be severed for best results.

Yes, it scares me to see anyone trying to pull them. I know it is done "lots of times" and "successfully" but all it takes is one accident/death and you know just how dangerous it is. Thanks for the reminder.

If you leave the trunk standing, there's more a lot more leverage to be had to pull it down. It takes more room, of course.