In article , Dave Painter
writes

"Joe Soap of the Crumbling Spires" wrote in message
.. .
Just moved into a new house and there are 20 foot leylandii at the
bottom of the garden. Is there any way of cutting them back to a more
reasonable size ? We do need the cover as we will be looked directly
onto if we chop them down. Also any idea what we should pay to a tree
surgeon if we should get them cut back?

Leylandii, do not grow from old wood so lopping the top off will cause the
trees to die back.
This either isn't true at all or is rare, I've seen many trees cut back
severely and continued to grow well

They need to be trained from an early age, regularly and frequently.
Agreed, for best results

If they are 20 foot now you should be able to take off about two foot, then
in three or four months
take another foot off.
I took 9' off my neighbours in one go without any ill effects and the
trees continued to grow

Then you will be looking at taking new growth off every three months.
Only during the summer of course

Hopefully your trees will 'thicken up' and become more of a hedge/bush
rather than individual trees.

My fathers trees did not, they gradually died back from the base until all
that was left were the trunks
about 12 foot high. These have been pulled out and replaced with a garden
fence.


Our neighbour had hers removed when it hit 80 foot after about fifteen years
growth.

YMMV

Dave



--
David