As the title says really!  I've got a roughly 90ft privet hedge that I've been battling for the last 6 years, it was about 20ft tall, 3-4ft wide and just left to overgrow by the last people (I think for anti-ball reasons, I live beside a golf course).

I've gotten it mostly down to 2-3ft high with my chainsaw, the chainsaw alas died a death year before last so I've just been trimming since then to try and keep it no more than 3ft as best I can.

I want it gone, really - I've always hated it and I need to get some fenceposts concreted in so I can replace the fence a bit better than I have done already - it was chain link, it's now 6ft aviary mesh but because of the hedge I've never been able to do more than a bodge job to keep the dogs in.

I can't afford a new chainsaw, or to hire anything really and I think it's going to be too much for me to dig it out fully - is it possible to dig down and try to cut it off below ground level then kill it somehow or am I just stuck with the blasted stuff?

I had a big bush of some sort in my garden when I moved in - not privet but it was high and grew out taking up a fair amount of my garden.  I hacked back as much as I could with secateurs and finally lopping bits off at the bottom with a spade.  I bought some sort of powder from b and q, it was a root killer or some such.  I never dug it up but the thing sied right back and the area is now grassed over.  I could not remember the name to save my life but there are things out there you can use.

We had a long line of conifers that were an eye sore.

We ended up having to use a transit van to pull the roots out in the end as they were so deep.

We have also recently had another tree chopped down and left the stump in this time as we have put decking over.

We were advised to put bleach on and around the stump and that seems to have killed it off.

Ideally I want to be able to plant over where they are in the near future - not directly in the soil, I'm planning on doing raised beds but they'll still be sat on the soil.  I don't mind using root killer or the like if it won't have an effect on the planting but it'll be veg I'll be putting in.  Does that make a difference?

I suspect I'd have to use some machinery to pull these out, they are seriously well rooted so I've got to find an alternative really!

The one I got rid of was a monster of a root - probably as big as the bush.  I can only suggest you check the labels

We had the same thing with privet when we first moved here, I never knew it grew so tall !
We chopped it back to ground level with loppers and bow saw, then dug round the roots and chopped them as much as possible with the loppers, what was left never grew back and we didn't have to use weed killer.