Today was the day I took out the peach tree stump in the soon to be garden bed on the western edge of our property. Originally when we purchased the property, the area was a mass of alder trees and blackberry bushes. We took down all the alders, but decided to plant a Frost peach tree in one spot. Frost is a semi-freestone peach that is resistant to peach leaf curl, and had worked very well for us in Fortuna. Here, hard by the ocean, it almost never ripened the peaches. So eventually (after 10 years) we cut down the peach tree, and now are digging out a vegetable bed to put in its place.
Digging out a tree stump is hard work! Here is a picture of the tools I used to do the job (click to enlarge).
Tools included an old English forged garden fork, a curved hand saw, a DeWit Dutch hand hoe, my Felco #2 pruner, and a ratcheting lopper for bigger roots.
After getting out the weeds surrounding the stump, I dug and clipped any roots I came across. Here are some of the roots I cut out.
It always seems to come to a certain point in the work where I am befuddled about why "the damn root isn't coming out" (after all this work).
But finally with more clearing the final roots come into view to be cut, and some intensive rocking of the roots will free the stump. It is a great feeling when it comes out. Here is the triumph.
More weeding is on tap for this bed, and some transplanting as well. Then it will be time to construct a bed boundary (we are using more of the concrete retaining wall pieces detailed in the blog posts about the retaining wall), amending of the soil with as much organic matter as I can muster, tilling it all in, and then planting the bed with veggies. More reports to follow.
Tools included an old English forged garden fork, a curved hand saw, a DeWit Dutch hand hoe, my Felco #2 pruner, and a ratcheting lopper for bigger roots.
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