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Has anyone removed a tree?
I would greatly appreciate some advice about a dead tree. The tree in our front yard was very healthy last year, but this year it stayed dead (except from some green sprout things to the side of the tree). On the news, we heard that some kinds of trees in our area were killed during an early frost last October, and we're pretty sure this is what happened.
My questions are:
1. Is there any way it can magically come back to life? (I'm sure it can't, but my husband thinks it's "possible" so he doesn't want to cut it down).
2. I think we could remove it ourselves since it isn't huge (probably about 6-8 inches in diameter), but what do you do with the stump? If I leave the stump, will we be able to plant another tree in the same spot (or right next to it)? If I can't plant a tree right next to it without removing the stump, how do I go about removing the stump? Do you need to hire a company to do that?
TIA!! We're really clueless about trees and yard stuff.
Re: Has anyone removed a tree?
sounds like it's a goner
we cut down our crabapple tree ourselves with the help of some neighbors and a chainsaw. Then we paid to have the stump ground down, but it is still in the ground, about 3 inches below. We covered it up with dirt and planted grass there. Then we planted a new tree about 6 feet away from the stump, you cannot plant on top of it.
without tearing up your whole yard, it's basically impossible to remove the stump and all the roots.
Gretchen Evie, born 7/8/2012 at 35w5d
We've removed 2 apple trees on our own, including the stump (not grinding down), and planted another tree in the same spot as one of the trees and perennials in the other. Blog posts on it:
http://wholeyard.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-apple-trees-arent-that-great.html
http://wholeyard.blogspot.com/2008/05/operation-shade-trees.html
http://wholeyard.blogspot.com/2008/06/bean-bed-updates.html
... I'm not sure why the images aren't showing up in the 2nd post. They should.
Basically, you'd have to dig out to the drip line of the current tree and remove those roots. It's hard work but doable.
food blog | garden blog | curly dogs blog
If you don't really care about the stump being there for a long time, there are some natural methods to help it break down more quickly. We had a very sloped backyard and it was impossible to get a stump grinder into the yard. So we used a drill and chainsaw and cut and drilled deep holes into the stump. I then poured sugar water, Coke or honey into the holes and covered it with a black trash bag. I added more sweet stuff every week or so. It attracted bugs more quickly to eat the stump and wear it down. If the stump is really close to your house, I don't know that I would try this method though (don't want the bugs to move on to your house). For a large stump, it can take a year or more to break down though.
There are also DIY chemicals that are pretty nasty that will burn it from the inside.
I'm sure it's different in every area, but we shopped around and ended up just calling a company to come grind our stumps. To grind 4 stumps and to completely cut down a large bush (6ft tall) and grind that stump too, it was $200. I'm always a person who pays for convenience so this price was worth it to us.