Removal of stumps from shrubs

gerandy

I recently removed alot of mature shrubs as garden was getting very enclosed and dark. I cut as low to ground as possible at the time that I could reach. I want to return to grass. I am left with multiple 3-4" stumps where the original plants had been. Without having to dig each one out is there any way to help kill the stumps off over time so they will start to die off completely and rot away. I have sprayed with broad leaf / bramble weedkiller and roundup but there is still some fresh growth appearing.

Wanderer78

You can get stronger weedkiller, drill some holes in the stumps, pour it into the holes, and leave them off, they ll rot eventually. Have to get a stump grinder myself to remove some tree stumps

standardg60

Sorry but you took the lazy way out. If you'd left some heavy branches in situ you could have used them to help lever the roots out.
You can spray the new growth with glyphosate to kill the plants off, but the only way to speed up the rotting process is to bury the stumps with soil.

T-Maxx

It'll take many years for stumps to rot away, even when drilled, cut, poisoned, mutilated and whatever. A stump grinder is the easy way, else it's manually digging it out. Either way it makes a mess and will need reinstatement of the area.

Roundup makes a special stump killer which is most likely a concentrated glyphosate that is brushed/painted on instead of sprayed on. I haven't used it myself though so can't comment on its effectiveness.

I've used a reciprocating saw to cut the stumps level with the surface, big drill bits/ augers to drill the stump as much as possible and then periodically removed all new growth till it eventually stopped. It's far from the perfect solution but so is the rest of my patch...:o

irish_goat

We made a minicompost heap on top of some of the stumps in our garden. Sped up the rotting process. Other thing was to hack away at the edges on a regular basis so the less rotten center is always getting exposed.

Lumen

You can achieve a lot with a decent long (6ft ish) chisel and point crowbar.

magicbastarder

i deliberately left leylandii stumps in the ground (was planting native trees around them, so happy to let them rot naturally).
six years later, they're still very much in situ.

standardg60

Lumen wrote: »

You can achieve a lot with a decent long (6ft ish) chisel and point crowbar.

Indeed! My favourite tool. Amazing for the fitness levels too :-).