Homesteading short cuts
We
decided to cut down a few trees in a chicken pasture this week and
realized there was no way to fall them without hurting the new fence.
Cutting away the bark in a
complete circle should stop new growth next year.
I can't help but feeling as
if we swept some dirt under a rug that will require more attention in
the future.
Not sure how long it takes
for a Box Elder to dry up and fall in a situation
like this, but I'd say we bought ourselves 5 to 10 years.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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You sound like you're speaking from experience --- please tell us more! What kind of trees have you girdled, and how soon did they die?
Box-elders do indeed resprout prolifically, but I can pull the sprouts off with my bare hands if I catch them in the first year. The trees seem to die within a few years of having those sprouts yanked off regularly.