Small shrubs are very good for decoration and landscaping in lawns, yards, and gardens. Apart from that shrubs have many climate-friendly advantages too.
Some varieties of shrubs can grow too tall, so they create a shadow. This shadow sometimes creates stress for lawns, house owners, etc. For that, people have excuses to remove them permanently or want to transplant them somewhere else.
Let's understand how this process happens in detail.
How to remove a large shrub?
Removal of large shrubs depends on the purpose of removal. One may want to remove it forever but in a few cases, one may want to transplant it somewhere else.
Don't worry, I'm here to help you in both situations. But before that, I want to confirm that you know to run the basic cutting machines and tools used. If you never touched a tool in your lifetime, and still want to do this process, take the help of an expert first.
Let's understand the easiest method without using heavy machines to remove shrubs.
Do you have large shrubs in your lawn or garden?
Shrubs are not bad at all but there are some disadvantages to lawns if they grow too big. Shrubs' roots can make irregular bumps in the lawn turf. Many lawn shrubs' roots expand deep and wide in the lawns. It becomes more problematic when shrubs shadow bar the sunlight for lawns. For shadow-sensitive lawn turfs, it is not good for grass health.
In such cases, either bigger shrubs should be short by cutting or their removal is important to save that particular portion of the lawn. It doesn't mean that you don't need shrubs, but you can shift them to another place to take advantage.
Similarly in gardens, the only problem they create is sunlight bar and shadowing the plants.
Large shrubs look cool decoration-wise in lawns but these big shrubs are not easy to maintain and impact the lawn turf with their shadow.
Requirements to remove shrubs clean
To cut cleanly or pick the whole shrubs to transplant somewhere else, you need almost similar kinds of tools and a basic kit.
- Tools required
To kill the shrubs from lawns, you just need a cutter machine, hoe, spade, and a jack to pick up the big deep roots.
Apart from that if you want to remove the whole shrub with roots, you need small cultivator tools too to with above-mentioned tools.
- Safety kit
Eye safety glasses, hand gloves, and boots are very helpful to save you from any injury.
DIY method to remove large shrubs
First, if you are clear with your purpose, wear a safety kit as I suggested above, then you can follow the helping guide as follows-
To clean cut removal of shrubs
So you want to clean the shrubs forever. For that,
- Cut the bigger branches
First, take the cutter(machine if you know how to run it), and start to cut the biggest branches of shrubs. After that, if still some bigger portion left then cut that down.
In the end, you will have a bigger poll stem left with roots.
- Cut the stem
Now, above 2 feet from the ground, cut the stem cleanly with the help of the same cutter.
- Use a spade and hoe
Make a circular dig near this stem. Don't cut the roots with a spade or hoe. You need them whole to pick at once.
Make this dig deep till you don't see the roots cleanly.
- Wet the soil
Shrubs' roots are not easy to pull out from the soil. To make that process easier, you need to wet the soil to lose the grip of the roots with soil. Don't make a slug of soil otherwise, it will be impossible to pick it up easily. Just wet the soil.
- Pull out the roots
Now, take a jack, and fix it at the bottom of the stem. Pull out the whole roots with the stem. If this portion still does not pull out easily then try to do it continuously till the result.
If you don't have a jack, then use your muscle power. Force the stem in opposite directions. Grab the stem, and move it in all directions. In the end, move it circular. Finally, pick it up with the roots.
Sometimes, some portion of the roots may be still left in the ground. If your shrubs are in turf then leave the roots as it is.
To remove the whole shrub(for transplantation)
- Short the branches
Choose the biggest branches first. Short them with the help of a cutter. Don't cut them whole. Just make them short.
It will help you to handle the shrub while pulling out with the roots
- Wet the soil
Wet the soil enough so that it will be easier to move it around.
- Make a dig
Use a spade or a hoe to make a dig in the ground. Remember, you don't need to hurt shrubs' father roots.
This dig should be deeper than a foot.
- Pull out the roots
Without breaking the stem, use a jack to pull the whole shrub out. Fix the jack in the dig, then pull the shrub out with the whole.
In case you don't have a jack, you can use your hands and body power to move it around to lose the strength of roots.
Grab the stem and force it in opposite directions. In the end, when it becomes loose enough for you, just pull it out without breaking the stem and roots.
Post-recovery of the area
So in the end, you will have left a dig, some root picked up area to recover.
If you have a lawn or any garden in that area then you should make a proper recovery of that. For that, first of all, fill it with garden soil. Level it with the surface. Now fertilize the area if you have a lawn. Returf the area by taking similar grass from the same turf.
Do this returfing in late spring.
In garden areas, you can leave it after filling it at ground level.
Safety tips while using sharp tools
I can admit that it looks simple process to beginners but there can be some danger while using sharp tools. If you never touched sharp tools in your life, then ask for help from experts.
Even sometimes trained people can do the following mistakes-
- In overconfidence, they ignore safety glasses. Maybe wood pieces can fall in their eyes and hurt the eyes forever.
- Using machine cutters can injure them if you use them carelessly.
- Don't pull with too much force or you can break the stem if you have plans to transplant them.
- Don't hurt your legs while using a sharp spade and how.
- Don't cut the roots before pulling the shrub out(for transplantation).
How to Pullout a bush with a truck?
To pullout a bush with a truck, you need to follow these steps to be more precise and remove it with roots-
Dig deep in the soil
At first, if the soil is compacted or too hard to dig, wet the soil for digging. If you don't want to wet the soil, then use a digging machine. The size of the dig should be clean and deep enough so that you can pull out it with roots easily.
Bind the bush stem with truck
If your shrub is big enough then make sure to bind the shrub with chains or strong rope at the right spot. The best to bind at the bottom of the shrub is the strongest section. Fix another end of the rope in the truck tightly.
Start the engine and pull out the bush
Check the binding is strong enough again and then start the engine of the truck. Start slowly and then accelerate it. It will lose strength and pull out easily.
Fill the dig and level the surface
Finally, your shrubs or bush are pulled out. You need to level the surface now. Fill the same soil you dug within all the bushed areas. Level the surface with a straight flat tool.
What is the best time in a year to move shrubs?
There is no mean of the best time to remove a shrub or bush, only the right time. The right time to move a shrub is when it can take enough time to recover and to get established. At this time conditions should be very friendly for plant transplantation or cultivation.
Generally, fall, late winter, and early spring is the right time to move a shrub from one place to another.