How to Get Rid of Bushes in Stardew Valley

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While a few salmonberries or blackberries can lead to a big burst of energy in year one for new players, they quickly become unnecessary and the truth is, there are WAY more bushes around Stardew than there need to be. When it comes to getting rid of bushes in Stardew Valley there is good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the base game of Stardew Valley has limited options for dealing with bushes on the farm and on the map. The good news is that for certain farm setups there are some options for getting rid of bushes most players aren’t aware of, as well as a mod solution if you are comfortable playing with Stardew Valley mods.

In Stardew Valley limited bushes unique to the Beach Farm, Forest Farm, and River Farm can be destroyed with an axe upgraded to copper or better. No other bushes on the map can be destroyed in the base game, but the popular Destroyable Bushes Mod from nexusmods allows a player to permanently destroy any bushes on the entire map.

With these being the main options, let’s dive into how they work, what steps you need to take, and get the full picture on how you can remove those most annoying of bushes in your next game of Stardew Valley.

player destroying bush stardew valley
This is possible…but it takes a bit of modding to be able to do it. Picture demonstrating Stardew Valley destroying bushes mod originally posted here.

Destroying Bushes in Stardew Takes an Upgraded Axe

The bushes that can be destroyed in the base game do require an upgraded axe. Unlike the logs that require a steel axe, a copper axe is more than enough to destroy and bushes that you have the ability to take out. That’s an easy upgrade to afford and should be an early one anyway.

Keep in mind that these bushes can produce berries (salmonberry in the spring, blackberry in the fall), so make sure you really want that space open because once those are destroyed they are gone for good.

Only three farm layouts have destoryable bushes:

  • Beach Farm Layout
  • Forest Farm Layout
  • Riverlands Farm Layout

Destroying Bushes on the Beach Farm

Any bushes that are unique to the beach farm design can be destroyed by an upgraded axe. This not only includes the basic ones, but also larger new bushes, such as the one in the screenshot below just to the left of the player character. They’re here, taking up valuable real estate around the tree farm and blocking potential real estate that could be used for pathways or buildings.

Now you see them, and one application of a gold axe later…

Beach Farm Bushes Stardew Valley
Pictured are three original bushes on the Beach Farm that are about to disappear, leaving the Mahogany Tree farm a bit more space to breathe.

Maybe you don’t like those three bushes on the beach farm. Maybe you had plans for placing a building or a path down there. So after a short amount of chopping, now we have a nice clear space open to building because the bushes are gone!

Mahogany Tree Beach Farm Stardew
One gold axe and two swings times three and we now have the bushes permanently removed. Unlike the hardwood stumps on the forest farm or trees outside the farm, the bushes will not grow back. Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

While it would be nice if that was a widespread option, unfortunately this only applies to new bushes that are added with some certain beginning farm layouts in Stardew Valley.

Destroying Bushes on the Forest Farm

Additional bushes added because of the forest farm in Stardew Valley (which is my personal favorite one, tbh) can be removed with an axe. On this particular farm there are some thin tall bushes and these are the only bushes in Stardew that can actually be removed via a regular axe.

All the normal sized bushes or slightly larger bushes require an upgraded axe of copper or higher in order to pull this off.

Destroying Bushes on the Riverlands Farm

While bushes aren’t generally the first concern on the very unique (and in my opinion, infuriating) Riverlands Farm, because space is at an absolute premium, the time will come when one of those is in the way of a new building or bit of pathing. These bushes are removable with an upgraded axe.

Limited Options for Destroying Bushes in Stardew UNLESS…

The only bushes that can be destroyed in Stardew Valley are bushes in those three specialty farms that are added, unless you go with modding. There is an excellent mod that was made specifically for dealing with bushes anywhere on the map in Stardew Valley, including all of them that come naturally on every farm layout.

This is the destroyable bushes mod that is found on NexusMods, which can be found HERE, and that mod allows a player to destroy bushes with an upgraded bush anywhere on the map and it works with the popular expanded world mod, as well.

Adding this mod makes every bush in Stardew Valley able to be destroyed with a copper axe or above, and it even gives you some wood, to boot. The mod allows you to change stats like respawn rate (if any), amount of wood for cutting the bush, and more.

If you really want to destroy bushes in Stardew Valley this is the best catch-all option for making sure your options aren’t limited.

Destroying Bushes: In Conclusion

There are some options for destroying bushes, especially if feel fine with jumping to the mod store to bring some slice of life improvements to how you like to play Stardew. The good news is that the places where the bushes tend to be the most annoying are the new ones placed on the Beach, River, and Forest farms and those can be removed with a copper, steel, gold, or iridium axe.

So upgrade to a mere copper axe, which should be one of your first tool upgrades, and cut down the bushes in the way of progress. If you don’t like seeing them around the map period then maybe it’s time to take a look at the Destroyable Bushes mod for Stardew Valley and start hacking the bushes out to shape the map more in your preferred aesthetic.

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