Unfortunately, sometimes old trees die and you need to remove them and replace them with new tiny plants that will hopefully grow into gorgeous shady green trees. But, in order to do that, you have to get rid of the old tree stump to prepare the landscape for renovations or to free the space for new plants.
Most gardeners and tree contractors often note that tree stumps shouldn’t be the keepers in people’s garden’s even if they don’t take up the space you’d like to use for something else.
The matter is that old stumps may serve as perfect breeders for various tree diseases and parasites, which will eventually travel onto other trees and shrubs in your garden and cause a lot of trouble, if not ruin a bunch of healthy trees.
That’s why if you have a big old tree stump in your garden, you should definitely seek the help of tree service providers in order to remove it for good.
Most likely, you won’t be able to do that on your own, as quite old trees develop an extended root system (attached to the stump, of course), which has to be removed along with the stump, especially if you plan to remodel your landscape or plant new trees.
However, if you manage to find handy friends, you’ll be able to get rid of a mid-size stump in your garden.
These tree stump removing methods will help you do that with an ease.
Most effective DIY ways to get rid of an old tree stump in your garden
1. Let it rot
You may literally get rid of an old bulky tree stump by speeding up its rotting process, breaking the rotten wood into smaller pieces and get them out of your yard. Of course, you may let that happen naturally.
But if you don’t want to wait for a decade for a stump to finish rotting and possibly combat all the diseases it might spread onto other trees, make it rot a lot faster with the help of special tree stump removing chemicals.
Use a corded drill with a large bit to make a couple of deep holes in the stump and fill those with the chemical. Make sure that your children and pets don’t have any access to that chemical.
The chemical will stimulate the growth and reproduction of bacteria, which cause rotting, and make your stump all mulchy and quite easy to remove. By the time the chemical finishes its job, you’ll just have to break the stump apart using an ax and get rid of the rotten wood.
2. Let the fire destroy it
Some people suggest burning the stump out not to deal with manual labor at all.
If you’re not against that, pour some kerosene into the pre-drilled holes in the stump and leave it for a few weeks to let the kerosene penetrate deeper into the wood. After that, set the stump on fire by sticking a couple of burning matches into the drilled holes.
Be aware of the fact that the stump will burn down only after a couple of weeks of smoldering. Besides, the fire might damage the grass that grows around the stump.
Most importantly, having a constantly burning stump near your house or near something that may catch fire quite easily (like fallen leaves or dry grass) is extremely dangerous. That’s why it’s probably better to stick to manual or chemical removal. Or, get a protective metal cone to make sure that the fire is not going to spread on other tings or harm anybody.
After all, you may always go to HireRush.com and post a stump removal task to get in touch with providers of tree services and let them get rid of an old, ugly stump in your backyard.
3. Dig it out
If the stump isn’t too large in its diameter, you’ll be able to dig it out using an ordinary shovel and an ax. In order to do that, dig a deep trench around the stump to get to the major roots.
Use your shovel to ‘disconnect’ the stump from the smaller roots. Grab an electric saw or an ax and cut off the thickest ones.
With a shovel or a pickax, loosen the soil around the stump to get an easier access to it. Pry the stump from different sides and the bottom until you can get it out. If you see that the stump managed to grow waaay deep into the ground, dig a wider and a deeper trench around it and chop it off using an electric saw or an ax.
Remove the stump with the joining roots from the trench and fill it back with the soil. Don’t try to reach all the roots to get them out. Unless they rest quite close to the surface or make it completely impossible to take out the stump, you don’t need to deal with them at all.
We are excited to be having the pine trees removed from our backyard, so we will not have to worry about their pine needles anymore. We are trying to decide on a method to remove the stumps. It is good to know that if the sump is not too large, it is possible to dig it out using an ordinary shovel and ax. Thanks for informing me that it would be best to dig a trench around the stump first to make the job easier.