of mature leylandii along the north and south borders of the garden (on our
side of the fence) which means that the southern side of the garden doesn't
ever seem to get _any_ light.

So my questions are -

(1) For a new gardener is it foolhardy to think "Those trees are no problem
- we'll just dug 'em up!"?;

Ed.

When we bought our house it had a similar row of mature leylandii on its north
border - much to the dislike of our neighbour on the other side of them. Don't
even try digging them up - major work. Much simpler to do as we did. Chop them
down to about 5 or 6 feet high. Saw off the remaining side branches and you have
one instant row of fence posts! The trees will die off naturally. A few may
attempt to put out the odd feeble side shoot from the trunk, but these are easily
pulled off and beyond the first year they give up and die completely.
I used the "free fence posts" to attach some chain link fencing (to keep our dogs
in) and planted some pyracanthus hedging between the stumps, which is doing nicely
and gradually over-running the chain link and hiding it. By the time stumps have
rotted naturally the hedge will be fully mature.
Our neighbour approves of the change of hedge too!
--
Drakanthus.


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