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.

I've had luck with cutting them off at the ground, drilling a hole in the center of the stump and packing with rock salt (snow removal salt), then watering. They don't come right out, but rot out pretty quickly. Good Luck, C

You can buy chemical stuff that will make the stump decompose more quickly than it would naturally. Or if you've got a truck, you could tie chains around it and yank them out. Or rent one of those little bobcat things and use that to dig it out, or hire a landscaper to come in and basically do the same thing. (before doing any yanking/digging with power equipment, I'd have your utility lines marked so that you don't have an unfortunate accident with one of them!)

When you are done, you can make a stumpery:

http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/stumpery.html

(I'm actually considering this)

I was just about to post the very same question, thanks duncanji! I checked out the "stumpery". Very cool. I'm going to try the rock salt first. I just had an invasive black locust cut down, it's shooters extend about 40', not to mention the seedlings that have sprouted. Also we have huge forsythias, the stumps are 5" diameter, a mature eumonious, and a yew all pressing in our 100 year old foundation. I hate to do it, but its either us or them!

Sarah, with those plants, especially the locust, you will need to drill into any wood you can see at the surface. I'd do multiple holes, locust and yew are really hard to kill.

Thanks cathy4, I thought it was just one big drill hole! That's on the agenda for this weekend.

I have one of those reciprocating saber saws, the one where the blade is in the front. A woodcutting blade is about 6" or so long and believe it or not, you can stick the blade in the ground at the base of the stump and go all the way around that sucker cutting roots as you go. You may have to do a little digging to get at a tap root but the lateral roots are no problem. I have taken out 8 arborvities that were badly overgrown with it and then sawed off the limbs. Great tool. Gene

Thanks Gene. I was wondering how to get rid of the laterals.

It may be too late to respond to some of the comments above, but putting rock salt in quantity into soils that you expect to grow plants in later -- may not be the best plan.

Especially if you have experience trying to grow plants where de-icing salts are already plentiful, and successfully growing plants are not.

Simple application of glyphosate-based herbicide at label recommended levels will yield desirable results. Glove of Death methods work well for eliminating suckers and seedlings among "keeper" plants; search for threads with this information.

Thanks VV, if I may call you that. I've experimented with the glove of death on some sumac suckers with good effect.

I covered my stump with a mound of dirt and built a landscape "feature". LOL

Sure -- just don't call me a sunuvagun.

Good luck with the elimination efforts; let us know how it turns out.

I ended up just digging them out myself. Finally finished about a month ago, just in time to get the bed double-dug before winter set in. What a pain though! I have another pretty large stump on the other side of the house where a sycamore became ill and had to be cut down. I'm just going to build a compost pile on top of this one and let mother nature do her work. No way I am going to dig that one up! And I refuse to pay 250 dollars to have someone grind it down. Just outrageous! (I guess everyone has to make a living though.)

Duncan~ my DH got so exasperated with the many ways to rid a stump,chain saw a stump, burn a stump, drill and fill a stump that he put a chain around the stump and with the Jeep yanked it out of the ground! It made for a brief, exciting and entertaining moment. Took less than 3 mins when he stomped the gas and took off across his nice pretty green lawn! ;0)

garden6, my DH did the same thing with a boxwood hedge. I'm allergic to the stuff, go figure. But he hooked it to the pickup and bingo...........gone. He was having such a good time, I hated to have to make him stop....there were certain things I wanted to keep. LOL Big boys and their toys!

Yes indeedy!! ;0)