How to Remove Bush Roots

Maintaining a garden landscape requires more than just planting and pruning the plants. To keep the garden clean, neat, healthy, and thriving, you may sometimes have to get rid of some plants such as bushes. Thus, you want to learn how to remove bush roots.

Bush roots are a result of low or small clusters of shrubs with multiple branches that arise from or near the ground. Therefore, some skill is required to successfully remove them. in the guide below, we’ve shared a brief outline on how to skillfully remove bush roots.

Things You Will Need

Before you start removing the bush roots, you need to first line up the tools needed. These include:

• Gardening gloves
• Garden rake
• Root slayer shovel or digging fork
• Root jack
• Reciprocating saw (invest in cheap blades as they will quickly dull when cutting roots near the ground)
• Herbicides

Steps To Remove Bush Roots

There’s a myriad of ways you can remove bush roots. So below, we’ve shared the two simplest methods to do so.

Method 1

1. The first step involves prepping. Start by pulling brush and mulch that is lying on the ground using a garden rake, if the roots you are removing are smaller, you can even use your hands.
2. Next, measure a distance of at least 6 inches from the base of the roots, then, start removing dirt around the bush – digging in a circular motion. You should reserve the dirt you dig up during the process for later hole filling.
3. As you continue to dig, start cutting any roots you encounter. Continue to do so, whilst digging into the ground another 8 inches and removing more dirt. Do so until you reach the base of the root and you can visibly identify it.
4. Position the reciprocating saw perpendicular to the ground and then cut through the root. You don’t have to worry about how the cut will look because you will cover the root later anyways.
5. Immediately after cutting the root, cover the top of it with a heavy application of herbicide.  Applying the herbicide helps to stop its shoots from growing which, in turn, stops the bush from growing. 
6. Refill the hole containing the cut roots with the dirt you set aside. As you add the soil, ramping it down to keep the root in the ground and to ensure it rots away as time goes by.

Method 2

1. Water roots of the bush ensuring they are moist and easy to remove.
2. If the bush roots are small, simply pull them out by hand. If they are large, use a root jack – ensuring you don’t pull much of the aboveground stem. You can place the jaws of the jack around the bush stem and then use its handle to pull out the root system.  The more aboveground stem you pull out, the easier it will be for you to clear out the bush. 
3. If you have any remaining root system in the ground, use a digging fork or shovel to remove it to ensure the plant doesn’t re-establish itself using its remaining small root system
4. After you have removed the root system of the bush, apply a strong herbicide to the freshly pulled shrub stump surface on the ground to ensure their no possibility for the plant to grow.
5. When done, continue to monitor the area of the shrub for a few months or even years to ensure there is no regrowth. If you notice any small sprouts, pull them out before they have grown too much as this may cause the pant to re-establish itself.