How to remove large bushes?

Stump removal can be extremely hard work!

You might be able to cut down the bush and hack up the roots and stump enough to fill in with topsoil, but, if you want the stumps completely removed you most likely will need a chain and a truck to pull them out. Or you can borrow one of the mules over here. lol

You can also just have someone grind the stumps down instead of uprooting them.

I would soak the ground,wrap a chain around them and pull them out with my Jeep.
If that didn’t work,i would sheepishly call a tree service guy to fix my mess. ;)

Call a local stump grinder, AFTER you are sure where all utilities are our your property. Have them marked.

I remember someone that thought the knew where the underground cable for TV was buried ( not me ) and the Cable company came back out and replaced the the line for a EXTRA charge. Sewer and water would have been worse.

Once I pulled a pine tree stump out with a truck and it launched like a missle right at the rear window of the cab. It was coming dead center at the back of my head!

At the last second it fell into the bed. I thought it was going to kill me. lol

What are they? How big are they at the soil level?

I’m with lucille. A chain and a truck tends to work for me. Plus, it’s fun.

After you cut them down, if you don’t want to dig the root ball up paste some tar oil over the top s of the stumps…. This will prevent the stump from growing any new foliage…. :-/

Personally I’d dig them out, if you were local I’d offer to do the job for you.. I dug my neighbours up last year, took me two days! :-/ very hard graft……
He has a very nice vegetable plot now, oh & I dug them out by hand, with a spit & mattock….. And a long easing bar….. ;-)

It is really not that hard. If you dont have one….borrow a 3’ hand axe and a good long handle shovel. Start digging 1–2” out from the outer roots. Don’t even bother to do anything until you remove all the dirt at least one foot down…as you hit roots….chop them back with the axe. Generally I found working one side of the dig more so than the other will save time and effort. keep digging and chopping until you are under the bush and then either you or a helper grab as much of the branches as you can and pull them towards the ground which should expose more of the undersides roots which are the biggest and deepest. One you have access to them and cut them loose you will be home free.

Do re-sharpen the axe when you are done!

I was able to pull some small stumps, from 6’ arbor vitae, with a scissors jack after digging under them. This would not work with deeply rooted plants.