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- 1 REFLECTIONS ON REMOVING BUCKTHORN FROM MY OWN LANDSCAPE Mary Maguire Lerman When we moved into our home in 1989, the yard was a mess. An old, neglected Common Buckthorn hedge edged the front yard and was up into the twenty foot height range and fruiting all over. In the backyard, individual shrubs of Buckthorn were completely edging the yard to the alley having been spread by the birds leaving their droppings as they sat on the various overhead wires. It took us several years of cutting and clearing to remove this pest I don't know how many truckloads of buckthorn we ended up taking to neighborhood cleanups where brush was collected and chipped. Eventually, we had the large buckthorn out of the yard. However, since neighbors nearby still have it in their yards, I have to continually remove buckthorn seedlings from the yard on a yearly basis. The Buckthorn information sheet from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture provides you with ways to either chemically or physically treat the buckthorn and the stumps. However, I want to relay information to you about the roots. If you have access to a 44 and can literally soak the soil around buckthorn for many days to loosen the soil, you can then pull it out with a chain via the 44. Of • course you must first call Gopher State One Call to make sure you don't have any buried utilities in the area. If you do have buried utilities,forget this technique. With the 44 method you have a good chance of removing a large portion of the roots. If you happen to work in the construction field, a backhoe will also work quite well as long as the area has been cleared by Gopher State One Call. The roots on buckthorn are truly amazing. When we had our buckthorn hedge cut down we also had the stumps ground out. However, the roots remained for quite some time. It was not until three years after the stumps had been ground that my husband was able to begin tilling the soil. Even then, using a power tiller, he was bringing up large sections of bright gold buckthorn roots. I had been taught at the University, that woody plant roots often take up to 10-12 years to fully decay underground in our northern climate. That's why you see mushrooms in areas where trees and shrubs have come down-they feed on the decaying woody matter below ground. My point is this. Many of you may be removing buckthorn hedges hoping that you can immediately replant with a new hedge in the same area. This will only happen if you can fully excavate the roots. Otherwise, you will find that when you try to push a shovel into the ground for a number of years afterwards that you will be constantly running into these hard buckthorn roots. -over-