GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

18-10-2004, 11:55 PM

In article , "Lobster"
says...
Just bought a house with one of those huge leylandii-type triffid things
(just one) planted outside the front door. Surveyor mentioned it as a
'caution', and no damage to the house is evident, but I defintely want rid
of it. The beast's trunk is about 4-5" diameter at the base; it reaches up
to the guttering (1st floor, so about 17' tall?) and is only about 18" from
the front wall of the house.

I believe that simply chopping it down could cause more harm than good, ie
if there are roots under the property which then rot away leaving voids...
can anyone advise what I should do? Chop it down in stages? If so, by how
much? and over what period?

I had a ten foot one a couple of feet from the back corner of the house
that was blocking the garden path, I cut it back hard on that side and
it died. I gave it a shove and it just toppled, the root ball was less
than a foot across with a few straggly roots reaching out.