How To Remove Holly Bushes: A Complete Guide

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, follow these steps to get the plant out of the ground permanently.

How to Prep for Removing Your Holly Bushes

With their prickly leaves and dense foliage, removing a holly bush is no easy task. But with the right tools, you can take out a holly bush daily quickly. Keep in mind the time of year matters—it’s much easier to remove a holly bush in winter than spring. 

1. 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. 

2. 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.

How to Remove Holly Bushes

Once you’ve gathered your tools, use the following steps to remove the bush quickly and easily. 

1. Cut Back the Foliage 

Using pruning shears, start by cutting back the foliage and smaller branches. If it makes it easier, pull the branches out as far as possible and prune the branches in pieces as you go. This step helps make it easier to access the main stem.

2. Remove the Main Stem and Larger Branches:

 As you continue to cut it back, only the main stem and larger branches should remain. These are generally thicker and may require a sharp saw if you can’t use the pruning shears to cut back the thicker portions of the plant. 

3. Remove the Roots 

When removing any plant, you must remove the entire root system to ensure the plant doesn’t grow back. Before you attempt to dig up the roots, try to pour water or let your hose run on the ground around the holly bush to loosen the dirt. Make sure to use a sharp shovel to loosen the soil and dig around the base of the root system.

4. Dispose of Plant Material 

To ensure the plant doesn’t come back, 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.

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 to save on labor costs. Even buying these few garden tools will only cost you about $20, so it’s a budget-friendly 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.

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.