How do I get rid of roots?
by
Mary g
+1
I've decided to rip out 30yr old shrub roses and til an area to use as an extended gathering spot for family however the roots are ridiculous. My husband has rototiled twice and I've raked til my arms feel like rubber and still there are tons of roots sticking up...
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Use Brush b gone
We took out some real old wore out shrubs a couple of years ago. We chopped out the bigger roots and left the rest. When I planted, if I ran into roots, I just clipped them out where they were in the way. Since you are going to make it into a gathering area, perhaps if you put down some kind of pavers they will hide them. In rototilling the area you just brought up pieces of roots that the tiller probably broke off.
HI Gatesmary10,
If you can't get all of the pieces of roots out and want to kill them, then a weed killer will work. However, be very careful what you use because nothing will grow where you use most weed killers. If you want to use this as an extended garden for family, I'm thinking that you're going to be planting vegetables. If that's true, I'd suggest using straight vinegar. That should kill the roots, but not the soil. Other natural weed killer formulas contain salt that will kill the use of the soil and chemicals won't be good for a vegetable garden. The problem with most chemical weed killers is that the chemicals are getting into our lakes, streams and other water sources and some of them can't be filtered out. I hope this information helps. Wishing you the best.