The shoots coming up in the middle of my lawn (see picture) I believe they are from the roots of a cherry tree that is roughly 15 feet away (I could be wrong, there is also a Pear and Maple tree nearby).
Is my only option to keep cutting them at the ground or maybe more effective to chop a wedge out of the root?
I'm general curious about controlling shoots in other areas as well. It seems like there should be a better solution then just clipping them back a few times a year.
It'll be the cherry tree causing the problem - these put out a lot of surface roots, from which shoots will grow - often in untended gardens, you might find what appear to be 4 young cherry trees spaced out 30 feet away from an old cherry tree, or within 30 feet of a now dead cherry tree. All these will be formed from the mature, surface roots of the original tree. Unfortunately, its the nature of these trees - there isn't really a good solution other than to plant cherry well away from any lawns, and to keep wrenching off the shoots which appear.
It's almost certainly from one of the fruit trees. If you really just have to clip them a few times a year, I'd just do it, unless you really don't like the tree for other reasons. This probably isn't the answer you wanted, but there you are!
