unwanted trees popping up all over the garden

Scruff

Had this problem last year and thought i had it under controll but i guess not! Small saplings, curtesy of the one tree in the back garden have sprung up in the last couple of days all over place. As usual there is only about 3-5" poking through the grass but when i go to pull them i find quite big stumps and roots up to 4 feet long. Pulling these up last year nearly destroyed the garden and my santiy. Is there any way to get rid of them for good?

paulocon

What tree have you in the back garden?

CJhaughey

Sounds like either sycamore or ash, I don't know what to do except maybe try and get the saplings before they get to that size, are you mowing over the area where they are?

Avns1s

Sounds like a poplar tree or something else that is popping up shoots from the roots. Ash or sycamore dont do this.

No resolution to it I think without killing the main tree. Just keep them cut with the lawnmower when you're mowing the lawn.

Scruff

not exactly sure what it is. its flowering at the moment if thats any help.
Mowing keeps the saplings down but the root system still grows so you have hard stumps protruding through the ground and making the garden lumpy and uneven. May end up digging up the whole garden at a worst case cutting down the tree.

Stoner

Avns1s wrote:

Sounds like a poplar tree or something else that is popping up shoots from the roots. Ash or sycamore dont do this.
No resolution to it I think without killing the main tree. QUOTE]

I thought this too. The flowering fits in aswell. Sounds like your tree is not suitable for your garden regardless, even cutting the roots with a spade wont stop the lumpyness, you might have to remove the tree for good. Loads of poplar and variegated poplars have to be removed due to this, they look lovely but cause many problems due to their aggressive root growing style

Scruff

heres an example of what i dug up. not the largest either.

Stoner

yeah that could be a pic of the tree Avns1s is talking about, how about a pic of the actual tree itself?

looksee

Could be a lilac, but it doesn't really matter what it is, its going to continue doing that and the more roots you damage the more it will do it. Paint the shoots with systemic weedkiller then dig the whole thing up. You may have to clear up a few more shoots next year.

Scruff

Here is a photo of the tree and some of the saplings.

bmaxi

Scruff wrote:

Here is a photo of the tree and some of the saplings.[/QUOT

Looks like Prunus. Most of these are grafted onto a rootstock and the suckers are that rootstock trying to take over. You could keep cutting them off but you'll never be rid of them. These trees can easily make 70ft.

looksee

Its difficult to be sure from the picture but all the green at the lower part of the tree makes me suspect the rootstock is taking over above ground too. I'd dig it up.