The message
from "Davy Murray" contains these words:

Hi there.

I have some beech trees at the back of my garden, which are part of a
continuous hedge which runs down behind the properties in the street. My
trees have obviously been left to develop and are now about 15-18m high.
All the growth is going upwards and I need to encourage growth lower down
and aslo fill a gap where some trees have been removed.

I have seen layering being done on TV and wondered if this could be done
with my trees. The trunk stems range from about 120mm to 300mm diameter.

I think you mean hedge laying. Layering is when you bend a stem down
to the ground so that it makes new roots where it touches earth.

Those beech are too big for laying, but if you saw the trunks off very
short, say 1ft tall, they will spring up again from the trunk below the
cut, then by regular trimming you can make a thick new hedge in a few
years time.

Janet.