Hand Tools and Techniques for Home Landscaping

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The lower bole, or bottom of the tree and top of the roots, can be removed from view most readily with a rented stump grinder, an awesome thing with revolving teeth and a big engine that hovers over the stump and slowly eats it, spitting out the chips. But you still have the root structure in the ground. This will rot in time if it isn't the sort of tree that sprouts from its stump. You can burn it after it has dried for a year. There are also natural enzymes and chemical concoctions that can be poured onto it to dissolve it in time.

SOURCE LISTS FOR PARTS I Ft II OF HOME LANDSCAPING:

BOOK SOURCES

Chatto, Beth. The Damp Garden (Sagapress, Inc., 1982).

Cresey, Rosaline. Edible Landscaping ( Sierra Club, 1982).

Daniels, Stevie. The Wild LawnHandbook (Macmillan , 1995).

Earnst, Ruth Shaw. The Naturalist's Garden (Pequot Press, 1993).

Gilmore, Robert. TheWoodland Garden (Taylor, 1996).

Mollison, Bill. Introduction to Permaculture (Tagari, 1995).

Nature Company/John Karel Boring et al. NaturalGardening (Time/Life/Weldon Owen, 1995).

Elias. Edible WildPlants (Sterling, 1990). Reich, Lee. Uncommon FruitsWorthy of Attention (AddisonWesley, 1995).

Roth, Sally. Natural Landscaping St . Martin's, 1997).

SOURCES FOR HANDTOOLS

Homesteaders' Catalogs Cumberland General Store 1-806-334-4640

Lehman's Non-Electric "Good Neighbor" Heritage Catalog 330857-5757

General Tool Catalogs Harbor Freight Tools 1-800-423-2567

Northern 1-800-533-5545

Garden Tool Catalogs A.M. Leonard 1-800-543-8955

Loggers' Supply Catalogs Bailey's 1-800-322-4539

Seed Catalogs Peaceful Valley Farm Supply 916-272-4769

Pinetree Garden Seeds 207-926-3400

Magazine WaterGardening 317-769-3278

Small trees and large shrubs can be pulled up whole with a gadget called a Root Jack. One version is available from Peaceful Valley for a pretty hefty $85. This consists of a steel or hardwood post with an "I:'shaped steel foot mounted on the bottom. On the other side of the post, opposite the foot, is a mirror image pair of toothed pawls mounted on horizontal pins pointing back in the direction of the foot. They rotate up and down in the vertical plane on the front of the tool. You set the stem of the unfortunate plant between the pawls and haul back on the handle. As the handle moves back and up, the pawls pivot down, tighten and bite into the stem. As you pull, the device hinges up and back on the rear facing foot, providing enough leverage for you to extract plant, root, and all, like a dentist pulling out a sore tooth.

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