How To Remove Holly Bushes: A Complete Guide
Remove holly bushes by cutting back the foliage and removing the root system
Holly bushes are beautiful holiday decorations, but they can quickly become a nuisance when they take over your entire yard. If you want to learn how to remove holly bushes and tackle the ones growing in your yard, you can take a few steps to get the plant out of the ground permanently.
What Are Holly Bushes?
Holly bushes are shrubs or small trees with spiky, dark green leaves and vibrant red berries. Think about the plants used for Christmas decorating—one is typically holly. Despite their good looks, these bushes are invasive, spreading rapidly and being difficult to contain.
Homeowners may choose to remove bushes simply because they don’t like the aesthetic appeal or to protect native plants already in their gardens. Holly bushes need regular pruning to keep them at bay, so they’re not ideal for homeowners seeking low-maintenance landscaping.
How Much Does It Cost to Remove Holly Bushes?
If you’re already an avid gardener with a shovel and shears, you can DIY holly bush removal and pay nothing to get the project done. Even buying these few garden tools will only cost you $20 or so, so it’s not an expensive project to handle. On the other hand, you can hire a professional landscaping team to remove this type of bush. Professional bush removal costs an average of $900, but you may pay less for small holly bushes.
How to Prep for Removing Your Holly Bushes
Removing holly bushes from your garden is a relatively easy job, but you’ll need to prepare with the right tools and knowledge. Before you get started, make sure you have the following tools on hand:
Pruning shears
Thick, protective gloves
Safety goggles or protective eyewear
Small shovel
Trash bags
How to Remove Holly Bushes
Compared to thorny plants and deep-rooted plants, holly bushes are easy to dispose of if you tackle the problem before they take over your entire garden.
When you’ve decided to get rid of holly bushes in your yard, follow these steps:
Identify the type of holly bush: Before cutting down your bushes, identify the specific type of holly bushes on your property. Different holly species may require varying approaches to removal.
Choose the right season: Ideally, you should wait until fall or early winter to remove most types of bushes. During these seasons, the plant isn’t growing and the root system isn’t as strong, making the removal process easier.
Start cutting back the foliage: Using pruning shears, start by cutting back the foliage and smaller branches. This step helps make it easier to access the main stem.
Remove the main stem and larger branches: Dig around the plant’s main stem, using the pruning shears to cut back the thicker portions of the plant.
Remove the roots: When removing any plant, you must remove the entire root system to ensure the plant doesn’t grow back. Use a shovel to loosen the soil and dig around the base of the root system.
Dispose of plant material: To ensure the plant doesn’t reroute, make sure you throw away all of the debris. You can compost it, throw it away in trash bags, or take the remnants to your local dump.
Tips for Taking Care of Holly Bushes
There are many easy steps you can take to prevent holly bushes from taking over your garden. These tips can help you avoid the need for removal.
Prune regularly: Holly bushes are beautiful bushes when properly taken care of. Pruning bushes back each fall helps them stay the size you want.
Create natural borders: Use mulch or gravel to craft natural barriers around thorn bushes, preventing new growth and enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of your landscaping.
Monitoring for pests and diseases: Regularly monitoring holly bushes for signs of pests or diseases helps keep them looking nice and keeps other plants in your garden healthy.
Selectively thin dense growth: Periodically thin out dense growth within the holly bushes. This step reduces the risk of diseases and helps keep the plants from entirely taking over.
DIY vs. Hiring a Pro
While it’s possible to DIY holly bush removal, you should consider hiring a professional landscaper near you to help remove large or numerous bushes from your yard. Landscaping pros have the proper skills, equipment, and experience to get holly bushes out of your yard effectively. Plus, you can hire landscaping teams to handle multiple yard tasks during one appointment, bundling the cost of multiple services.
Frequently Asked Questions
Dormant seasons like fall and winter are the best times to dig up plants, including holly bushes. Plants aren’t growing during these seasons, so the removal process goes a lot quicker. Consider hiring a landscaping team to handle holly bush removal during the cold-weather months for off-season pricing deals, too.
To determine if you have invasive holly bushes on your property, look for signs of rapid and uncontrolled growth. Holly bushes take root quickly and can stop your other plants from growing properly. If you’re unsure about the status of your holly bushes, consider hiring a professional landscaper to inspect them and determine the best course of action for the bushes.
Yes, you can absolutely transplant bushes instead of removing them completely. The success depends on the size of the bushes, their age, and the transplanting season. Ideally, transplant during the dormant season (late fall or winter). Dig out the entire root system in one piece, fill the new hole with fresh soil and mulch, and water thoroughly after planting.