Oh man, that tree root I have been trying to dig up is enormous. It’s likely the “root” cause of many of the baby pear trees springing up in the garden area. There is no way I will be able to dig it up without pulling up the bed frame and bringing in a mini excavator. Even then, we’d probably have to dig another hole to China to get it all out.
I’m going to have to go at it a different way. I think this weekend I’ll get out there with the water hose and high pressure out as much of the packed in dirt as I can from around it, all the way to the edge of the garden bed, and then go at it with an ax. At least then it wouldn’t be sprouting in that bed. Then I guess all I can do is keep chopping off the sprouts as I find them elsewhere in the yard, and hopefully it will eventually die and rot. A root needs leaves to survive, doesn’t it? It can’t live forever, can it? Maybe when the weather changes the cold will help that along.
We’d thought all the baby pear trees popping up everywhere had been caused by pear seeds falling and planting themselves, but now I am beginning to suspect the root system on the mother tree was gigantic and runs throughout the whole area, and when the main tree started dying, the root system took matters into its own hands to survive. My gods, will we never be rid of these damnable weedy trees?!
Well, now I am wiped out from all the digging and huffing and puffing out in the humid heat. Time for a shower, some lunch, and maybe a nap. It’s pretty safe to say at this point in time, I am not much of a ditch digger. I’m way too puny for that much exertion.
Dow AgroSciences has developed a lot of species specific herbicides. There should be businesses in town that you can call and get estimates for killing that monster.
Recent advances in applied genetics are eliminating the need for mechanical weeding (and for so many farm workers). It’s also how a lot of riverbank is being reclaimed from noxious trees like salt cedar and mesquite, especially here in the West where water is getting more expensive.
Something to think about, anyway. No need to equivocate about staying natural when your peace of mind, not to mention your irreplaceable back, are in play.
If you cut the leafy parts off of a plant often enough, that plant dies … unless it’s attached to a huge root system. I don’t even have to dig up any of the other baby trees to know they are all coming from that original root system. They have been mowed off and chopped down every few DAYS for months and months now, and they keep coming back in the same locations. A normal tree would be dead by now. I know, because I hack down pecan seedlings too, and they don’t come back. Chop them off once, and they are gone.
I’m going to just eliminate the part in my actual garden bed, and then keep up chopping and mowing them down through winter to see what happens. If it doesn’t stop, I think I am prepared to poison the hell out of them. I’m not entirely comfortable with that, but I can’t be out there digging and chopping every few days for the rest of my life, and neither can Lin.
The root I have uncovered is showing signs of rot. Much of it is beginning to rot. I’m hoping it won’t have enough oomph left next spring to sprout anything, but I have my doubts. These things are simply relentless.