My DH pulled the stumps out with a chain and his pick up. Due to the soil being very moist, they came right out. We drug them to the street and paid someone to come with a big chipper.

This hedge was forty feet long, ten feet front to back and ten feet tall.

G. Schenk (The Complete Shade Gardener) says

In its garden range, this is a common hedge plant. But the planting of an English Laurel hedge is an act of aggression against one's neighbor--against oneself as well. It is the fightingest of hedges, pushing outward and upward as soon as you turn your back. English Laurel is one of the greatest goads to giving up on the yard and moving into an apartment--in a very real sense, this shrub is a real estate agent

You could cut it down to the ground and then use a stump killer, if you don't want to pull it out. I think you can still buy cans of Stump Killer at nurseries, or use Brush B Gon and drill holes in the stump and pour it in full strength.

I removed our laurel hedging the hard way: lots of digging and hacking with an axe and spade. The largest stems were around 5 inches across, and I would dig back until the roots were around an inch diameter.

Given that the hedge was on a raised bank, and that the soil was quite fine, these roots were still extremely awkward to remove.

Here is a link that might be useful: How I removed our Laurel hedge

I ripped mine out by the roots but know that it will be a continual battle to suppress the stuff coming back from smaller roots and seed. Hoe, hoe, hoe for the seedlings and a few digs on those coming up from roots will decimate the stuff. If you keep any new shoots chopped off immediately it will starve the roots and you'll eventually kill the root.

Yes, sprout suppression starves the rest. Should happen fairly quickly, if you are consistent. After the stumps have been dead for awhile they can be popped out.

I'm chopping down a row of photinia, to make room for a grape vine I have to try and move. This ph. hedge is about 6ft tall and 3ft wide and 25ft long, gets full sun all day, will be perfect for a nice grape arbor.

Has anyone had success with a heavy dose of epsom salt for killing English laurel?

Epsom salts - magnesium sulfate - is NOT a herbicide and will have no effect on the laurel. Other than perhaps to make it grow even a bit more vigorously :-) And if you apply this excessively - to the point where it could possibly harm the laurel - it may alter the soil conditions to the point where other plants may find it difficult to grow.

Don't do that with Epsom salts. It won't kill the laurel unless you render the soil so toxic via literally salting it that nothing will grow. However, it's far easier to throw the magnesium balance of the soil off and render the soil tight and nasty (magnesium excess tends to dispel some calcium and throw off the calcium/magnesium balance, rendering soils tighter, easy to crack, harder for water to penetrate...and it's not easy to reverse). The laurel will probably manage, being mature, but anything new won't like it.

Other nutrients will have some difficulty absorbing as they're now competing with excessive magnesium as well, particularly if you use enough to damage or kill the laurel.

So there's a second "no" on blind Epsom salt additions.

If you're going to kill it, spray it with Round Up or another herbicide designed to kill plants. Or dig it out, or cut it at the base and remove as much root mass as possible. Or leave the roots, kill sprouts as they arise, and wait for the roots to die and rot a bit. Or use a stump killer. There are a lot of possibilities.

Just cover the stump in dirt and if new shoots come up, cut them back and reapply more dirt. No chemicals needed, and the soil will speed up the decomposition of the stump. Why do people still mess with RoundUp, when we all know it causes cancer. Just put some work into it and stop taking the "easy" way out. Those chemicals should be illegal.

Sorry but the stump and root system will remain viable indefinitely....unless quite deeply buried by soil. You either need to dig them out or kill them by chemical means. RoundUp or glyphosate is not the best product for this, however. Use something with triclopyr as the active ingredient. It is much more effective on woody plants.

"Those chemicals should be illegal." A completely unrealistic viewpoint!! Our food supply would be drastically altered without them. And RoundUp/glyphosate is only suspected to be carcinogenic. So are hundreds of products we use on a daily basis.

Again, bury it deeply, or dig it out. Pouring round up/glyphosate or other pesticides is irresponsible. Monsanto will keep fighting to protect its flagship product, but the truth is out. Dozens of lawsuits have been paid out because it was found that Round Up had a significant contribution in a number of ailments including lymphoma. We 100% need to change our food supply system, if it means doritos and cola come off the shelf so be it. "Fundamentally, agriculture can manage without glyphosate."

Apparently triclopyr hasn't been linked to cancer yet, however personally I would not consume it or want it anywhere near my garden. Keep in mind that mature trees can potentially be harmed by triclopyr, and it can be found in soil up to a year later. You can read about it here https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev2_026296.pdf, but remember the US forestry policy primary objective is making money, not protecting your health. They care about doug fir monocultures, and selling off as much old growth forest as they can.

I am not an apologist for herbicides by any stretch of the imagination. But I can say that covering laurel stumps with earth is an excellent way of propagating more laurel. It’s called stooling. And it will not kill them. If one doesn’t wish to use chemicals, cut them down, dig them out and repeatedly remove all suckers. Forget the earth covering.

Spray application of herbicides is very bad for plants, soil, and people. Look up variegate porphyria to find out about the impact on other plants in the vicinity where herbicide is applied. The only responsible way to use herbicides is with a needle, injected directly to the plant, or for woody plants using an eye dropper into a small hole. For me I was able to stop the stooling effect using a large pile of soil. Some shoots made it up, they were removed and more soil was added. The stump appears to be finally dead. The soil should speed up the decomposition once it is in fact dead.