What is the easiest way to clear overgrown bushes and weeds?

Question

I have a bed in the front that the previous owners planted with all sorts of bushes, shrubs, perennials, etc, but it has gotten out of hand. They were retired and spend all of their time in the garden. I work 60 hours a week, and do not have that kind of time to spend, so I am looking to plant something lower maitenance. I need to clear away what is there, and I am thinking that the end of the season when it has all gone dormant would be the time to do this. I have read about this newspaper method that I could maybe do after cutting away all the debris, but I have read that I need to top it with 8 to 10 inches of soil. That seems kind of like it would make a big mountain of dirt in my yard. Is there anything else that I could do that is relatively simple?

BTW-- I am not exactly able to dig down in this soil with a shovel very deep since the soil is really hard. I have bent 2 shovels trying to dig in it!

Answer 1

Start with a weedeater to get rid of the bulky plants, then use a rototiller to dig up the hard soil and tear up the root systems and such.  You'll need to rake all the roots and debris out of the freshly tilled dirt then you'll be ready to plant whatever you want in the bear soil.  Try some drought resistant ground-cover (ask your local nursery).

If you don't have a weedeater or rototiller you can rent one from places like Home Deport of Hertz.

Answer 2

We just did this for our neighbor - her husband had passed away and some of the people she hired did a terrible job - she just needed something easy.  So we borrowed a truck and used a towing strap to hook the trucks towing ball to the base of each shrub, then stood WAY back and pushed the gas gently so the truck would pull the shrub up for us.  It worked on most of them, though there were two very old hollies with huge bases, for those we took a loper and an axe and cut them back to the main stem, then dug on one side with a spud bar (looks like a giant screwdriver - you get them at hardware stores) and pulled on the un-dig side while prying from the dug side and popped those babies right out of there.  Then we took out anything useful, raked out the beds with a metal soil rake, and then added some composted manure and dug that in to loosen the soil.  Finally we put in some shrubs that will only grow the size we want them to (so they will not need to be trimmed) and filled in with some very hardy perennials that look decent and bloom for longer periods and are drought tolerant.  So she does cut one or two things back as they fade each year, but other than that , they come up and bloom and do their thing and all she has to do is mulch or weed and she only had to water it the first year and just a bit when it gets really droughty.

Answer 3

hire it done.....

otherwise it's cut and dig and shovel.... wet the soil.. or do it after a rain...... makes the job easier, but muddy.... get the roots out.... or they'll just grow back.....and even if you poison them to kill them, you still have to get the remains out, so skip the poisons and just dig... or have someone else dig....

Answer 4

You a few buddies maybe some drinks a lawn tractor and some chains