How to get rid of an unwanted bush

We were battling some pesky bushes that my SO's mom planted long ago and they popped up all along our fence line. Finally found the solution....wanna borrow our goat? He's been here a week and there's not one bush left. :P
 
wow - there are some great ideas here. I'm going to be dealing with this same problem shortly and I'm not looking forward to it. We just moved into a new house and a previous owner appeared to have decided where to plant his shrubs by being blindfolded and throwing a dart and planting where it landed. I don't know what a lot of these plants are but most of it looks like trashy stuff. Boy, I wish I could get a goat to come in here and take care of it for me but it looks like I'm going to have to do it the hard way - digging them out. Cool idea about the boiling water and red pepper - I love natural solutions like that.

Tara
 
Watch out for the driveway. When I was removing roots from four o clocks that a prvious owner planted (this was at our house by the beach) the biggest roots had grown underneath the driveway. I cut them off as best I could and they didn't come back. I think that pulling it out will cause damage if roots are underneath.

Monica

I like the hot water idea also, I think I will try that on some of my problems.
 
When I want to get rid an overgrown bush, I trim the branches off, leaving the trunk, then dig up the stump. Leaving the trunk gives me leverage for pushing the root ball over to get at the tap root, or for chaining it to a truck. A pickaxe is handy for the roots, but the stump may get in the way when swinging. For those, I use my dirt axe... an old one that sees lots of rocks and roots... brutal on an edged tool...
 
Today I got 3 unwanted bushed from my local freecycle!!! I'm thrilled and I even had to help load them-but happy to have them.
Do you have freecycle?
 
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