How to remove surfacing tree roots from existing grass.
At the new dream house, we’ve learned very quickly that there are pros and cons to having mature landscaping. All is well in pictures, until you look closer in the lawn!
The pros of having mature landscaping outweigh the cons so far, but tree root maintenance has been a big job! We have tree roots surfacing everywhere in our grass, and it’s even messing up our concrete basketball court by raising the concrete slabs little by little. Tearing out a few concrete slabs is a project in the near future too.
The roots are surfacing everywhere! The arborist said that the main reason the roots are coming up is that the trees were planted slightly too high out of the ground. So the roots are about 6-12 inches higher than they would normally be if the tree would have been lowered when it was planted. So, as a result, the roots are very close to the surface. I constantly trip over them, and they definitely are an eye sore too. The arborist gave us advice and opinions on what to do because we definitely didn’t want to kill our mature trees. But surprisingly, he said that most likely removing the surfacing roots won’t affect the trees at all! He said that trees are just as big under the ground as they are above the ground, and removing a root here and there will not affect a healthy mature tree. He mentioned that occasionally you will get a few dead branches in the tree after removing a root, but you can easily cut that branch out too.
So after we got the green light from the arborist, we tackled the project with a vengeance. We’ve been busy tearing out roots for a few months now. We went to get them all out before it gets over 100 degrees in the next couple weeks. Roots were EVERYWHERE! Our kids play in the grass, and the uneven surface was driving me crazy. I have a bad ankle and walking on the roots are tricky for me.
- Locate your root and mark the beginning of and end of where it has surfaced.
2. Use a sawzall to cut both ends of your root by sticking the blade deep into the grass and cutting until you feel the root has been cut all the way through.
3. Slowly pry the root out of the ground with a shovel. Some roots came out easily, and others were more stubborn.
4. Then, slowly remove the root. You may need to cut it into pieces with the sawzall in order to get the roots to come out of the ground. 
5. After you remove the large roots, you will have ugly trenches left in your grass.
You can tell that this picture was taken a few months ago because our grass wasn’t fully greened up yet for the Spring.
6. After the roots were removed, we added top soil to the trenches to even out the level of the grass.
7. Reseed where your filled trenches are. We haven’t reseeded yet, but the grass is naturally growing in where the roots were! Here is an updated picture of the backyard from this morning. It may be hard to tell, but this is the same area as the picture directly above.
The lawn is looking better and better by the day except for our dog Ruger making a running path back to the chicken coop! HAHA.
I’ll keep you updated on the progress! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram to see real time updates!
Happy Monday!
xoxo
I don’t think removing tree roots is simple like that. Thank for your sharing!
Beautiful yard! Lots of times, trees are seeking water and the roots come to the surface to get it more easily….from the sprinklers. If you will deep water, like a very, very slow drip every so often(depending on your tree)you will find that the roots will drink that deep water and not come to the surface! Good luck!
How are your trees doing now, now that it’s been a few years?
Doing great!