This afternoon I decided to pull out some weeds that I noticed in the side yard. As I started weeding the side and back yards I noticed many new branches growing in the stump of my red twig dogwood. For context, I hate those bushes because of how overgrown they got and because touching them caused itching and rashes so last year I made a concerted effort to kill the three of them. I cut them all back and then spent hours trying to dig one out. By the time I got one bush fully removed I was done for the season (it was fall and starting to turn cold).
Early this spring I cut the two remaining bushes back further so that they were basically level with the ground and then late in the spring I noticed them both trying to grow back. I cut them down to the ground again and then removed one of the two remaining stumps in May or early June. It was the third and final stump—which has already been cut to ground level twice—that was showing leaves again today. When I saw how deep in the stump the new branches were starting from and realized that I couldn’t cut it any closer to the ground I decided to finally try pulling it out completely. I cut a couple of roots with the chainsaw but dug the rest of them out as much as I could and finally got that last stump removed. I’m so excited to have that patch of ground available and never have to worry about those itchy plants anymore.
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