Hi Guys & Gals!!

I have this amazingly huge flax bush in my back yard it was here when I brought the property! But time has come to remove it as it is a major eye sore!! I have read around and people suggest to dig around it and then use a 4wd to pull it out but we can not get a 4wd in the backyard do to the fence and garage in the way, I have also heard of spraying it with round up in the centre of it too.

Does anyone else no of a way to do this or even who we could hire to do it for us??

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

Richard

Rich018

I have been slowly over the last couple of years removing them along our fenceline.I have been cutting the flax off and then digging out the root ,I know this is a very laborious way of getting rid of it but I can at last see the end in sight. One thing if you have a woodburner hang the flax up to dry then when dry put them in small bundles tied with a bit of flax and use them for fire lighters they are terrific .

Gidday

Well Benny has just said what I would suggest. You will need a real sharp spde, but one or two sections at a time.

I wonder if it's worth trying used oil as I did to get rid of Fairy Bamboo that was taking over. I had tried everything to no avail. A friend of mine said she had real success by pouring on her unwanted Bamboo. Just went to her local garage and they gladly gave it to her. Worth a try.

G'day Rich018.

No mate Glyphosate (Roundup) will not do the job properly. About the only chemical that will do the job properly is very high rates of Amitrole, but in your case it would be cost prohibitive.

Unfortunately Benny and ole-fella-Jack's got the answer....power-up the banjo (shovel) mate and rip into it.

Cheers.

Flax bushes make plurry good rats nests too due to very little, or no rain being able to penetrate around the base of the plant....nice and warm.

dig it out as they are shallow rooted and it ends up a good job that way

use a chain saw

I have removed a few old plants by digging down from the outside, working on a portion only. Loosening the shallow root and grabbing the attached "V" section of leaves and pushing them into the centre, then back and forth. This loosens that "clump" or portion. Working in a circle quickly leads you towards the centre of the entire plant and even large clumps can be removed with half an hour's work. The first section is the hardest.

Easy to do but not easy to write the instructions on a forum.

It seems that flaxes grow in a circle and there is usually a huge bare centre to an established plant when it has long been established. That is why you start on the outside, loosen a portion and work round in a circle digging out the V shaped portions (leaves/roots) of an entire plant.

If I was in Invercargill I'd come round one morning and give you a hand and show you how easy it really is.

hope you got rid of your flax bush by now, I had 2 big flax bushes which had outgrown the garden and I took good photos of them and sold them on trade me with instructions that they were to be dug out by the succesful buyer which he was happy to do and brought his own trailer.