In article . com,
"Cat(h)" writes:
| I have had the most life affirming experience of getting a tree surgeon
| to cut down a line of leylandii cypresses on the boundary between my
| garden and my neighbour's - to the intense satisfaction of all
| concerned. I have now planted the "hedge" with a variety of flowering
| shrubs, including fuschias, flowering rubus and a couple of roses.

That sounds good!

| Do I need to treat the stumps - including the trunk - to kill them and
| avoid re-growth?

No. They are conifers and only a couple of species of those will
regrow, and leylandii is not one.

| Also, the root network of those nasty creatures is
| making it relatively difficult to dig and plant anything there. I
| there any type of product that, painted on the cut section of the
| remaining stumps, would kill the roots (a little like round up does for
| more conventional weeds?).

Realistically, no. They are effectively already dead, but the actual
removal will be done by fungi over the next few years. There are
products that are said to speed that up, but doing nothing is quite
effective.

You can dig holes by using a heavy spade, grub-axe, trowel and
hatchet, but there is no quick answer short of heavy machinery.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.