Removing a Tree Stump

When we moved in 6 months ago, there was a small tree near the edge of the patio and we soon decided it needed to go as it was too close and obscured our view of the garden. We pruned it back and turned it into mulch, but left behind was a very stubborn looking stump! We knew from the start it was going to be a lot of hard work to get it out, but it was a nice surprise when it turned out to be not as difficult as we first imagined.

the offending tree stump was removed by chipping away at the shallow roots with a small axe

Along the surface there were several large thick roots firmly established around the tree stump. I imagined there were many more large thick roots waiting for us underneath the stump. I just couldn't imagine how we were going to chop through the stump to get underneath it to get at the large roots that were obviously waiting for us there. For two days (or two afternoons) we scrapped away the dirt from the roots around the stump. On the second day, we decided to buy a small axe from Bunnings, and continued to chip away at the large roots that had grown along the surface. To complicate matters we discovered the drain pipe underneath the tree stump, we couldn't believe someone would thoughtlessly put a tree on top of a shallow pipe like that.

the stubborn tree stump suddenly gave way

Finally David started kicking the stump and it started to budge. All of a sudden it was really moving and it came out! There were no deep roots underneath at all, the whole thing was shallow rooted, and thank goodness for that! It was a nice surprise to be proven wrong and have the stump come out a lot easier than I imagined. Now its the perfect spot for our herb garden, which I plan to blog about very soon!

the space left will be perfect for a herb garden