I used to dislike hollies, but they provide shelter for many birds, and colored berries all winter so if you have space for them, they can be a beautiful addition to the garden.
Sattelite head is right. DIG! I had to take out 7 that were planted in the 50's. For two years I tried to drill holes in them and pour in various total vegetation kills but the would send runner roots up and sprout again. A chain and a truck did the job!

GGG

You go girl! Once again you are Atlantas sexiest garden advisor.
Don't take it the wrong way, all the girls I date are only interested in taking clothes off and playing house.
I like it when a woman talks about hard work and digging, especially when they are right.

Ive taken several "trees" out due to over crowding and I have never used any product other than back-work or nothing at all. Ripping the main trunk out with the truck is some hard work and a goold V-8 engine helps ease the troubles.

I have a holly just like that. It was actually 20 feet tall and I cut it down to only one foot........
Most trees this would kill them. Not this one. It's not an easily managable bush about four feet in circle and I love it like my own.

You can try to kill it with brush killer and then dig it out if a) that doesn't work or b) you need to plant something in the same spot.

To kill it with brush killer, get some herbicide. There are two name brand ones: "Brush-B-Gon" (they actually spell it that way), and Round-Up for woody plants. Then cut the plant to the ground with a pruning saw, a chain saw or just loppers if it is small enough. Immediately apply the brush killer to the stump, making sure you get it on the outer edge of the trunk (that is the living layer, just under the bark).

The only way you'll know if it is still alive is if it sends up new shoots from the stump or any roots. This may be several weeks or even several months later. If it does, you can nip off the shoots or treat them with herbicide. I had a row of 12 needlepoint holiies - some of them I dug out and some of them I left in (I wanted their roots to hold the soil in place for a while). A couple of them sent up new shoots and I cut them off. They gave up (ran out of energy) after a couple attempts.

GGG, congratulations on your Atlantas sexiest garden advisor designation. You rock! ;)

If only he could see I am a toothless, grey haired old hag with a saggy butt, hump back and bad disposition!

GGG

Well...I must say, I am over-run with holly shrubs/trees/afflictions. :)

The original owners of our house must have loved them though, because they are every where! UGH! The hedge in front of our front porch is about 8 feet tall and is all holly. (our porch is high) We would love to rip them out and plant something else, but I'm afraid the roots extend under the house and if we pull them (It would probably take an 18-wheeler to budge those monsters) the foundation might crack! Ha! The trunks of these things are huge as well, so they are very healthy, happy holly monsters.

My son dug up one in the back last year and we thought he'd gotten all the roots...nope...from those roots that extended out there are babies coming up. It's a never-ending battle here. I am constantly walking through my yard, targeting the next holly victim to remove. I'm beginning to think these things watch me and paste on a sheepish holly grin while whispering to each other that there's no way the human is going to irradicte them from this property. Wicked, wicked things!

Beverly

If Brush Be Gone or Round-Up® for woody plants won't work there is only one alternative, Dynamite!

Actualy, if you don't plan on using the area for 30 days or so I have found that a generous portion of Pool Shock (Dry Granulated Chlorine) works quite well but the area is unusable for about 30 days until the chlorine dissipates unless, you are planting Kudzu which is unaffected by chlorine, gasoline and dynamite.

kudzu....the cockroach of the plant kingdom.

Dynamite might actually work here, but I'm afraid I need to live in my house. LOL!

Oh mi gosh you guys are scaring me! Dynamite, kudzu and holly evil spirits. I mean damn!
I let me holly live and it's a nice ass bush I gotta say I love the sexy foliage and it even keeps the neighboors kids out of the garden with it's spiky leaves.

G- Girl, I know what you look like and that you are self proclaimed "old"... Lay off it! Your a darn sexy spirit and that's what I was getting at. The older people get the more pretty or ugly they can become. And with cosmetics and vanity it can be just the vice versa. People are so screwed up today all I was saying is you and most people who garden are in touch with the earth which makes them HOT to me! Hot, sexy, beautiful.... all interchangable and nothing to do with looks

Okokok, when they are planted everywhere, that sucks. What are people thinking anyways. I mean plant something productive for crying out loud.

FOrtunately( AND UNFORTUNATELY) most meathods to erradicate them have been listed.
I'm not a propagandist of explosives and herbicides or chemicals so I suggest you use hard work if you can.

Thanks ya all for the advices. I digged 3 of them today. It took average 2 hours to dig each. This is really big pain in the back... Cannot sleep thru the nite though.

To expand on what esh_ga said, use the concentrate--not the diluted (ready-to-use) variety. Paint it on the top outer edge of the stump with one of those disposable foam paint brushes. You can pull the edge of the bark away from the stump slightly which may help even more. Learned that trick from the Ga Gardner TV show on PBS.

esh_ga said:
To kill it with brush killer, get some herbicide. There are two name brand ones: "Brush-B-Gon" (they actually spell it that way), and Round-Up for woody plants. Then cut the plant to the ground with a pruning saw, a chain saw or just loppers if it is small enough. Immediately apply the brush killer to the stump, making sure you get it on the outer edge of the trunk (that is the living layer, just under the bark).

I finally managed to dig up 12 big stumps. How did I do it:

- dig 3 by myself within 2 days
- 2 friends came over and helped digging 3 of them... and then they played game and drank beers.. LOL
- a mexican guy digg the rest for $100.00. he digged one stump for $15.... yahoo!

Well the dreaded holly!!! Someone has told me, on a couple of different occasions that their grandparent found drilling a hole in each section and pouring buttermilk in each hole one week and then a week later pouring the rest down there. (depending on size of holly, but I was told a quart should do the trick) In about 2 weeks he noticed his grandparent's holly was starting to.. kinda crumble. Apparently the chemicals of the buttermilk react badly with the holly.. Both of my friends mentioned that if they had not seen it for themselves, they wouldn't have believed it!! It sure sounds less back breaking and less expensive!!
I think I will try this and let y'all know. Wish me luck!!!