Puzzle Plant Solutions

1. Break off all the side branches. The remainder of the plant will eventually die and crumble on its own.
2. Pull off all the leaves of the shrub - it will eventually die and rot away.
3. Declare the garden not to be a garden anymore - it is now a childs play area. Thus the shrub is no longer in a garden.
4. Wait until the shrub grows big enough to be called a tree not a shrub. There will no longer be a shrub in the garden.
5. Plant a row of similar shrubs along side it. By definition it is now a hedge and there is no longer a shrub in the garden.
6. Wait a very long time until the shrub dies and decays naturally.
7. Ask someone else to destroy the plant using their own tools.
8. Find something that feeds on the shrub and eats it - killing or demolishing the plant.
9. Tie a long metal spike to the plant during a thunderstorm!
10. Cover the plant up and starve it of light or water so it dies and decays.
11. Put another plant next to it that will destroy it such as Golder Hop (this poisons the soil and strangles nearby plants).
12. Raise the height of the surrounding soil above the height of the shrub - it could be considered to have been removed since it is no longer visible.
13. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious!
14. (Taking a step back from the problem) - I would ask my associates how they would remove it.
15. Tell a known burglar that you keep all your life savings in a chest buried under the shrub.
16. Tell the police you suspect someone is buried there.
17. Tie a bone to the trunk and let your dog lose on it.
18. Scrape off the bark (with teeth or nails) - this will kill some plants.
19. Set fire to the plant.
20. Ask [insert your favourite villain here] to talk to the plant for a long time - the plant will lose the will to live.

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21. Is removing the shrub the correct strategy anyway? What assumptions were made in deciding that a shrub needed removing in the first place - and is this the correct shrub to remove. Are there any alternative strategies that do not involve removing this shrub.
22. Remove ALL OTHER plants from the garden except for the shrub. Then by definition this can no longer be called a garden, so the shrub cannot then be in a garden.
23. Tell the knights of NI (Monty Pythons Holy Grail) where the shrub is and leave the rest to them.
24. Ensure the plant is actually correctly identified as being a shrub - it may actually be a different type of plant - in which case there is no shrub to remove anyway.
25. Glue plastic flowers to the shrub and pretend the shrub has gone and this is a different plant.
26. Offer the shrub to a plant loving neighbour - provided he extracts it himself.
27. The shrub may not be hardy - so cover it in ice to kill it.
28. Spray the shrub repeatedly with water in sunny weather - the drops will burn the leaves as they focus the suns light. If sunny enough could kill plant. Position mirrors to reflect even more light onto it for better effect.
29. Say nasty things to the plant, call it "useless", "ugly" and "disgusting" - it may wither and die of shame.
30. Continually soak the ground around the plant with water. Water logged roots will kill many plants.
31. Cover the entire plant with a black plastic bin bag until it suffocates.
32. Use a magnifying glass to slowly burn through the main trunk.
33. Tie some wire tightly around the trunk and stems. As the plant grows it will throttle itself. (This is a problem with trees unless gardeners use plastic / expanding ties to fasten them to support posts.)
34. Remove any surrounding objects or other plants from around the shrub - exposing it to the full force of the wind. A gale force wind may destroy it.
35. Go into denial - what shrub? - there is no shrub there.
36. Tell the kids the shrub is delicate and NOT to play football near it.

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