Lylandi stumps

Hi folks. We recently paid to have a row of around 20 lylandi tress felled with their stumps remaining as close to the soil as possible.

I started researching into ways to remove them but I've come across articles that suggest just to leave the stumps as they will eventually rot and no new growth woild ever appear. Is this indeed the case and can I consider the trees completely dead?

I have plans to put up a fence and perhaps some hedging in the future along with some easily maintained plants. I assume the trees would have had some negative impact on the soil and that leaving the roots would make it difficult to grow any hedging or plants?

If I wanted to remove the stumps is there an easy way to remove them - ideally without checmicals (although I've heard roundup stump killer works effectively)? Stump grinders can be rented quite cheaply in my area but would it be really necessary?

My understanding is that the Lylandi root system isn't that deep and could perhaps be dug out with some.elbow grease?

Thanks very much for any help

 

Hi @Bfm to GC and nice to have you with us.

I've just found this link on lylandi tress for the stumps

Killing Leylandii Roots

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An alternative way to get rid of the roots is to drill some holes in the stumps and fill them with Epsom Salts. Cover them with plastic and weight it down. Any salts that seep into the surrounding soil will feed surrounding plants - no ill effects like poisons.
However the overdose in the stumps should assist the rotting down process in a few months.
Leylandii will not regrow from those stumps

PS - Welcome to the forum.

 

Hi and welcome to Gardeners Corner. My parents had a row of Leylandii felled and treated with weedkiller applied into drilled holes in the remaining stumps. 25 years later the stumps were still there, as sound as a pound and not a sign of rot! Yes there was no regrowth from the stumps but they did not rot away.
The soil around where the trees were will be very poor and depleted of all nutrients. Again yes Leylandii are not that deep rooted but still quite a job to dig out if they were of any size. If the access is possible a JCB could take out the stumps easily and quickly but maybe you don't have available access? If you really want to plant something worthwhile where the Leylandii were it really is pretty imperative to get the stumps out. If getting someone in with a JCB is a no no then a stump grinder would be my next option.
You don't say how big the trees were. If they were above 10ft then I personally wouldn't fancy digging out the stumps, all 20 of them by hand unless you fancy being a potential candidate for a coronary

 

Take it easy silu he's asked about killing stumps ....not heart trouble

 

As you have had them cut close to the ground I'd get a stump grinder in.

 

An excellent post @shiney

 

Thank you very much everyone. I think I'll take the stumps out after all. I'd love to create a nice bed for planting. Fantastic work @shiney. Looks fantastic

 

You would be better hiring a mini digger for the day if you have a few to get out, stump grinders are only any good for getting the stump level with the ground then you have to raise the ground level with soil.

 

It might do the job to a certain extent but to do the job properly its best to dig the stump and roots out, stump grinders are not designed to cut into soil and cant chase roots about the garden,

Mini digger hire is about £75 a day 1.5 Ton Mini Digger Kubota KX15-4 - Chase Plant Hire - Mini Digger Hire one day with a digger all the roots will be out and you will be able to get the spade in the ground,

Stump grinders are over £100 a day and when you've done with it you have to start digging with a spade to remove the roots/do what you did and put tons of soil on top as a dodge job, yes it looks nice what you've done with it but once hes finished with the grinder the grounds not workable with a spade .
Portable Stump Grinder & Chipper - HSS Hire

 

shiney my hubby took our conifer to this level very low and axed the centres then throwed gravel on to it and it looks like a rock form and yesterday when we checked it already the edges are going all brown...plus the 4 pampas grasses love it there.

 

Thanks for all the great advice. Certainly lots of think about.

I took a few hours last weekend and dug a hole around each stump. I'd say another 2-3 feet below ground level. My reasoning was that it would make work easy for a stump grinder. Would this be a fair assumption? So rather than have the stump at ground level I thought the grinder would be able to remove the larger stump that's now exposed as a result of digging the new hole around them?

The other half is happy with putting a fence along the border and I've already had a guy look at it and said the stumps wouldn't be a problem even if they were left as is.

Thanks again folks