Cutting down a crepe myrtle

There was a problem tree too close to the house. I cut it down, I'll never trim the suckers again.

The tree was a scrawny twisted gnarly sickly tree. It was too close to the house. It was right where the internet and electricity cables run. But most of all, no matter what I did or how deep I cut, a big bush of suckers formed at the base every few months. So today, I see the big bush, and look at the minimal leaves on the tree itself, and decide to cut the dang thing down. Yesterday was another tree day.

It was a sad tree, I should have cut it down years ago. It was lawn waste pickup day, a perfect time to hack this down and put it on the curb. I will need to find a nice plant to replace it this summer.

The red plant in front almost died in a hard freeze this January. The crepe myrtle has to go. Out comes the trusty Makita LXT 36-Volt chainsaw. I tried it and it did not cut well. So I always keep a fresh chain handy. I might try to sharpen one, but a new one cuts so nice.

The bulk of the tree is cut up and in the lawn wast barrels. I started to dig out the stump. If you leave anything, it just starts shooing up suckers. I tried to pull up all the roots, but some were too tough, I did not want to dig around cables.

The trunk was useless as a lever, at least without a BobCat. I start to hack on the stump. Frustrated, I just run the chainsaw down the middle, careful of any buried cables. That let me split the stump and cut the tap-roots underneath, at least on one side.

I had to cut the remaining half in half again. That let me lever the two quarters up and out. You an see the two quarters in the foreground, the other half is in a trash barrel already. I really like these 8-mil latex gloves I got on Amazon. They don't tear, and are easy on-off.

The gloves are for pouring a little Roundup in the remaining tap-roots. This worked great to kill Brazilian pepper trees in the backyard. This is so much better. I will buy a nice plant to fill in the gap. There is drip irrigation here. Four buckets, let's see if they take it all.

Cutting down a crepe myrtle

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