[akchick]

Hello, I tried to do a search on this first but didn't come up with anything specific to answer my question. We are in a home we are renting but we are allowed to do some outdoor work so we took out some hedge-like bushes in the front of our house by tearing them out with our truck. We tied the rope around the bottom by the roots so we figured it would get everything, however there must be a lot of root still left in the ground and I am not sure if I should be trying to get them out, and if that is what I should do before planting flowers and such how should I go about doing that, or if I should just try to cut out as much as possible and add more dirt over the top. The roots are in a rectangular area between the front of our house and a sidewalk that goes to our front door, there is about 2-3 feet between the house and the sidewalk. I think I gave any information that might be important but if anyone needs more to give me a suggestion just let me know. I appreciate any help anyone can offer!

Thanks

[tjr]

I worked in the tree service industry for about ten years. If you don't want to call a tree service to have the roots ground out you can axe out the large roots by hand.As far as planting something in that area its fine the new roots will grow around the old.I only have one suggestion though,if the old bushes were arbor vities or a variety of pine make sure to remove all of the needles because they have a high concentration of acid in them which does not promote good growth. If you have anymore questions don't hesitate to ask hope this helps

[akchick]

Thank you! I appreciate the info. We don't want to call a tree service just because the money issue. I really want to make it look nice in front but I don't want to go completely broke while doing it, we have a very limited budget for the gardening, but what your directions sound like something I can definitely do. I wasn't sure about whether the trees would start growing again from the roots or not and I didn't know about the pine needle thing so I will have to figure out for sure what kind of bushes they were just to be safe. Thanks again!

[labman]

Some trees and bushes are more aggressive than others about coming from the roots. In another month Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and local places will be selling flats of annuals. You can pick up things such as petunias, etc. and plant them among the roots. They don't need deep holes, hard to dig in the roots left. If you have much sun, they will make a bright spot. If you have heavy shade, try impatiens.

If the bushes sprout from the roots, carefully apply broad leaf weed killer directly on them. Sprinkling Preen between your plants will reduce the weeds.

[akchick]

Thank you labman, it is a very sunny area so I will be going with the petunias, but I have a shaded area I was trying to figure out what to put in and it is around the base of a maple tree in the front yard so I might use the impatiens around that. I am very new to the gardening thing so suggestions of what kind of flowers to plant are definitely helpful. I will have to get some of that preen, I have never heard of it but how great to have something to help with the weeds, and thanks for the broad leaf weed killer suggestions too! Hopefully the trees don't grow back but I wanted to know how to deal with them just in case they did.

Thank you!