Once you cut down the privot hedge, use an electric drill to drill a few holes into the remaining stump. Then apply a systemic herbicide you can pick up at the hardware store or garden center. Use a brush to dab only the stump so it gets into the holes and is absorbed into the stump. That will take care of that. Be careful with the herbicide, wear rubber gloves & goggles. Try to avoid spillage. It's quite toxic.

I would bite the bullet and would cut the privet down to about 1ft and dig out the roots manually; the extra 1ft will give something to pull on. I don't think that it will have a too thick root system. Leaving old roots in the garden often cause problems later and come back to bite you when you might want to re-plant. Yes it will require some effort but you wont have to buy sheeting and stones.

SBK is the stumpkiller of choice for me, available fron any garden centre. Some of the stems will be too thin to drill so I used an old chisle to split them on the privet that I killed.

If you want to put the fence posts in as soon as the privet is gone then the roots will be in the way so unless you are willing to put the posts either behind or in front you would have to wait quite while for the roots to rot down if you don't dig them out.

If you put membrane and stones down this will cost quite a bit and will all have to be removed again when you put the fence posts in because the roots will take quite a long time to disappear even with the SBK.

Common and sensible advice to very new gardeners is not to rush into anything. Parts of your town are extremely windy (I was brought up there) and the privet may have been chosen for that reason - if you live highish on one of the hills then solid fences are not a good choice. I would strongly advise you to wait a while before you decide.

Very best wishes with your new house and garden - you will find many new friends on here who are happy to help with any suggestions you might want. We would love to see a photo of your new back garden!

hi, welcome to GoY, to make life a little easier for yourself, should you decide to remove the privet hedge, dig a trench as deep as you can manage, either side of the hedge, as close to the roots as possible, and fill with water using a hosepipe, let it drain away and fill again, keep on filling the trench until the soil turns to mud, this will make it a lot easier to rock the stumps, {which I would cut back to about 2ft}and expose the roots, which you can then cut with a spade, and lift out the majority of the rootball, any roots that remain will not rejuvenate, and you should be able to put your fence posts in place without much trouble, Derek.