Last month we finally got around to digging out the conifer which had been blocking our view of the rest of the garden for 6 years! Such a key moment, that its inspired us to come back and update this poor neglected blog....
The tree in question was planted in the roundabout in our drive. I'm afraid if you haven't seen it, you'll have to imagine it (...were weren't digital then...). Needless to say, it was a boring green conifer which had grown too big for its boots...as tall as the gutters on the house.
Having cut down most of the tree, we left a stump of around 4' high to ensure we had something to lever against or tie a truck too if needed! The 2' to 3' diameter stump then stayed that way for several months - we were particularly successful in avoiding that job.
Finally, after I'd had a little go at digging it out, when Janet was over, she and Jen dug around the tree to give us some working space, cutting the roots as they came across them.
Having blunted chain saw blades in the past when working near soil, I decided to use our electric "reciprocating" saw to cut the remaining roots (...to be honest we'd bought it on a bit of a whim and not used it for anything else). This worked really well, and I was able to free up enough of the roots to push over the trunk, and then saw off as many roots as I could from the base....we needed to make this thing lighter!
Eventually the trunk was "rollable" and so having used a jack to lift raise it slightly, we levered it out of the whole, for it to land on the tarmac with a thud (and making a big dent....nevermind, we're not keeping the tarmac long term....).
We rolled the trunk off into the bushes:
and then examined the crater:
Having filled this, and levelled, its now ready for planting!
