Digging up conifer

Hi
How difficult is it to remove a 7foot conifer from a garden, I'd like to plant a plum or apple tree in its place.

Any tips?
Cheers
Tony

 

Presumably the trunk isn't too thick, say 6" max ?

I've just removed about 14-15 conifers from a six foot high hedge. Its not so bad.

Start by cutting off all the branches till you have a bare trunk, I used a chainsaw and/or bowsaw. Do NOT cut the trunk at this point.

Then use a mattock (I guess a pickaxe / axe / spade may do, but a mattock is designed for the job) to cut around the base of the tree, down to about a foot or so ... conifer roots go horizontally (no tap root) so you are going round and round the base of the trunk breaking the roots you come across, and digging out the earth in a channel round it.

When you've gone down far enough, start hanging off the trunk ... swing the trunk back and forth, side to side, alternate directions ... this will start to break the remaining roots. If it wont budge, go back to the mattock and dig a bit deeper.

Eventually by swinging the trunk back and forth, it will snap off in your hand ... job done ! I found it easier to leave one bare branch on, as it allows you to get a bit of rotary action going too, helping to snap the remaining roots.

 

Spot on, did as you said, took me about 20 mins. Easy peasy.

Cheers Tony

 

Blimey, you don't hang around do you, lol !

 

Well it's is garden waste bin day tomorrow. Lol

 

That was quick lol , I remember removing a conifer hedge that was about 8ft tall from my mum's garden and they came out fairly easy as they were relatively young trees and hadn't really established any wide spreading roots...