Brian Mitchell wrote:
"'Mike'" writes:

Seven feet?? :-((

The line appoaches the house at a slight angle but the nearest is seven feet.

I feel sure others will advise you, but I guess it would be wise NOT
to take
them all out at once because of heave.

I hear what you say but I have already excavated twice between these
trees and the house, once right beside the foundations and once close to
the trees(to a depth of about 2ft) to install a land drain, and found a
mass of small and fine roots rather than anything large. The house is on
a steep stony slope and is not of normal construction; it's timber frame
with cladding on a natural stone/lime mortar foundation, so it's all
very flexible! To be honest, I'm more concerned about losing a useful
windbreak, given all the gales we've had, but my neighbour has planted
his own line of conifers (!) which are getting quite robust now.

brian mitchell






--
Mike

The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rneba.org.uk
Luxury Self Catering on the Isle of Wight?
www.shanklinmanormews.co.uk

Heave is caused by soil absorbing unaccustomed amounts of water - which
your trees have been using.

Killing/removing the trees will alter the
volume of the soil and may result in heave and/or subsidence.


--
Rusty

Muddymike wrote:
"Brian Mitchell" wrote in message
...

I use one I bought from B&Q about 10 years ago. Its on its third
chain and still working well. I have cut down large leylandii
with it and found the best method is to cut off as many branches
as you can reach from the ground first. Then cut the tree at
waist level, before trimming off the remaining branches. Cutting
them down is the easy bit, its clearing up afterwards that's hard
work.

If you're going to remove the rootball, take the branches off, but leave
the whole height of the tree standing.

Attach a rope to the top.

Dig round the rootball with spade and mattock.

Pull rope, and tree comes out, complete with rootball.

Getting the rootball out after cutting down the tree is *MUCH* harder work.

--
Rusty

On 2009-12-10 13:23:50 +0000, Charlie Pridham
said:

In article ,
says...
On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:50:59 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

I have a Bosch (40-18S)and it tackles quite big stuff if the blade is
sharpe, it is light and easy to use. I am not keen on using it off the
ground, but it would be quite happy to take out a 20 foot lylandii
cutting at around chest height, be a good idea to get someone to control
the tree coming down with a rope.

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

Yes :~)))

Go for it, would be my solution. I hate the damned things when grown
in the wrong place. I had a big, green, boring, claustrophobic slab of
them in my previous garden. When they came down I truly preferred
drive and walk by villagers peering into the garden I was making. It
led to many interesting chats. Normally, I hate to see trees felled,
it's a horrible thing to me. I could have danced the "death to
leylandii" dance the day those came down!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:54:23 +0000, Rusty Hinge wrote:

If you're going to remove the rootball, take the branches off, but leave
the whole height of the tree standing.

Whole height is probably a bit excessive but a good bit of trunk out
of the ground, say 4 or 5' is good idea. Gives you something lever
with for the root ball that probably weighs in justunder a tonne...

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
Aries wrote:

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down
that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a
very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate
it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

I know my name's not Charlie, but there's a lad called Charlie
down the road, so I'll answer on his behalf.

Cut off all the grennery from most, if not all coniferous trees
will kill them. Generally if not always, conifers only grow
from the bits with foliage. The only exception I can think of
offhand is yew, which technically, is a conifer,


Here is one I did earlier
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...uddymike.10669

It stayed like that for many years and even became a landmark for
car "treasure hunt" rallies.

Mike

In article ,
says...
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:24:01 +0000, Rusty Hinge wrote:

Aries wrote:

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

I know my name's not Charlie, but there's a lad called Charlie down the
road, so I'll answer on his behalf.

Cut off all the grennery from most, if not all coniferous trees will
kill them. Generally if not always, conifers only grow from the bits
with foliage. The only exception I can think of offhand is yew, which
technically, is a conifer,

The Leylandii hedge we have here is around 12 feet tall in places and
there's a lot of it going around one side and the end of our garden. I
would love to either cut it down to say 6 feet or take it out altogether and
plant evergreen shrubs in their place. Let me confirm what you're saying -
if we cut them down by half will that kill them altogether ?

--
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;
courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
~ Winston Churchill
http://ariesval.co.uk/val/

Reducing a 12 footer by half would unfortunately not kill it but would
leave it looking rather ugly
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On 2009-12-11 08:48:07 +0000, Aries said:

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:59:20 +0000, Sacha wrote:

On 2009-12-10 13:23:50 +0000, Charlie Pridham
said:

In article ,
says...
On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:50:59 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

I have a Bosch (40-18S)and it tackles quite big stuff if the blade is
sharpe, it is light and easy to use. I am not keen on using it off the
ground, but it would be quite happy to take out a 20 foot lylandii
cutting at around chest height, be a good idea to get someone to control
the tree coming down with a rope.

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

Yes :~)))

Go for it, would be my solution. I hate the damned things when grown
in the wrong place. I had a big, green, boring, claustrophobic slab of
them in my previous garden. When they came down I truly preferred
drive and walk by villagers peering into the garden I was making. It
led to many interesting chats. Normally, I hate to see trees felled,
it's a horrible thing to me. I could have danced the "death to
leylandii" dance the day those came down!

I'd love to but I have to persuade Tony first !

You need a frinedly farming neighbour with a 'run wild' chainsaw. ;-)
The other possibility might be to take all the branches off and use the
remaining trunks, with rope or chain looped between them, as a sort of
pergola.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

On 2009-12-11 09:48:51 +0000, Charlie Pridham
said:

In article ,
says...
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:24:01 +0000, Rusty Hinge wrote:

Aries wrote:

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

I know my name's not Charlie, but there's a lad called Charlie down the
road, so I'll answer on his behalf.

Cut off all the grennery from most, if not all coniferous trees will
kill them. Generally if not always, conifers only grow from the bits
with foliage. The only exception I can think of offhand is yew, which
technically, is a conifer,

The Leylandii hedge we have here is around 12 feet tall in places and
there's a lot of it going around one side and the end of our garden. I
would love to either cut it down to say 6 feet or take it out altogether and
plant evergreen shrubs in their place. Let me confirm what you're saying -
if we cut them down by half will that kill them altogether ?

--
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;
courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
~ Winston Churchill
http://ariesval.co.uk/val/

Reducing a 12 footer by half would unfortunately not kill it but would
leave it looking rather ugly

Defiinitely. Against all Ray's advice a "I know better" sort of person
had that done and we wince every time we drive past their place. Those
trees look absolutely dreadful.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

Aries writes
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:24:01 +0000, Rusty Hinge wrote:

Aries wrote:

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

I know my name's not Charlie, but there's a lad called Charlie down the
road, so I'll answer on his behalf.

Cut off all the grennery from most, if not all coniferous trees will
kill them. Generally if not always, conifers only grow from the bits
with foliage. The only exception I can think of offhand is yew, which
technically, is a conifer,

The Leylandii hedge we have here is around 12 feet tall in places and
there's a lot of it going around one side and the end of our garden. I
would love to either cut it down to say 6 feet or take it out altogether and
plant evergreen shrubs in their place. Let me confirm what you're saying -
if we cut them down by half will that kill them altogether ?

No, because you'd still have lots of green growth. It would grow new
leaders, and would continue getting fatter.

We have a row of 3.5 hiding the barn-like 1950s church next door, and
when they reached the height that we could no longer see the roof, we
took them down to a height just above the gutter. They're now back up to
concealing-whole-roof mode, and extend another 18inches into the garden
(doesn't matter because it's sheltering our log store).

Meanwhile, the Church has a circle of 6 surrounding their war memorial,
and reduced them by half, and they now look rather like lollipops. But
while they've got theirs on our boundary they can't grumble about ours
on their boundary ;-)

If you want to kill, you need to cut back beyond the green growth - eg
cut down to 6 foot and take all the branches off back tot he trunk as
Sasha suggests, then string some chains between and grow some climbers.
--
Kay

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:52:13 +0000, Aries
wrote:


The Leylandii hedge we have here is around 12 feet tall in places and
there's a lot of it going around one side and the end of our garden. I
would love to either cut it down to say 6 feet or take it out altogether and
plant evergreen shrubs in their place. Let me confirm what you're saying -
if we cut them down by half will that kill them altogether ?

Some time ago new neighbours next door inherited a 16' (at least)
Leylandii hedge all around their back garden.
On one joyous day the hedge was viciously reduced to about 7'.
A couple of odd plants died but most survived. They are clipped and
topped off at 7' twice a year and seem reasonably happy/healthy.


--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹

Aries wrote:
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:24:01 +0000, Rusty Hinge wrote:

Aries wrote:
A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic
I know my name's not Charlie, but there's a lad called Charlie down the
road, so I'll answer on his behalf.

Cut off all the grennery from most, if not all coniferous trees will
kill them. Generally if not always, conifers only grow from the bits
with foliage. The only exception I can think of offhand is yew, which
technically, is a conifer,

The Leylandii hedge we have here is around 12 feet tall in places and
there's a lot of it going around one side and the end of our garden. I
would love to either cut it down to say 6 feet or take it out altogether and
plant evergreen shrubs in their place. Let me confirm what you're saying -
if we cut them down by half will that kill them altogether ?

No.

Cut the growing-point(s) from a branch, and that branch will not grow
any more.

Cut it off hlfway up, and what you haven't cut off will continue to grow
as normal.

Someone I know cut his leylndii hedge back to the trunk, expectig it to
sprout - it didn't, but FTTB it makes a good frame for climbers.

--
Rusty

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:27:40 +0000, Aries
wrote:

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:57:41 +0000, Aries wrote:

Thank you oh unnamed one, that's given me new heart

It's Ron tho I believe ?

You know me so well!


--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:11:44 +0000, Aries
wrote:

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:07:02 +0000, ®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹ wrote:

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:27:40 +0000, Aries
wrote:

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:57:41 +0000, Aries wrote:

Thank you oh unnamed one, that's given me new heart

It's Ron tho I believe ?

You know me so well!

You reckon? ;-)

A rose by any other name................




--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a man not in
possession of a good fortune is in need of a shed.

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:17:08 +0000, Aries
wrote:

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:12:55 +0000, ®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹ wrote:

You know me so well!

You reckon? ;-)

A rose by any other name................

without the thorns I hope ;-)


My agent likes to say so


--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹

William Shakespeare walks into a pub.

"Hey" says the barman "You're barred"

On Dec 11, 8:48*am, Aries wrote:
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:59:20 +0000, Sacha wrote:
On 2009-12-10 13:23:50 +0000, Charlie Pridham
said:

In article ,
says...
On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:50:59 -0000, Charlie Pridham wrote:

I have a Bosch (40-18S)and it tackles quite big stuff if the blade is
sharpe, it is light and easy to use. I am not keen on using it off the
ground, but it would be quite happy to take out a 20 foot lylandii
cutting at around chest height, be a good idea to get someone to control
the tree coming down with a rope.

A question Charlie - wouldn't cutting such tall leylandii down that much
kill it off altogether? *I ask that question as we too have a very tall
leylandii hedge running around part of our property and I hate it - makes me
feel rather claustrophobic

Yes :~)))

Go for it, would be my solution. *I hate the damned things when grown
in the wrong place. *I had a big, green, boring, claustrophobic slab of
them in my previous garden. *When they came down I truly preferred
drive and walk by villagers peering into the garden I was making. *It
led to many interesting chats. *Normally, I hate to see trees felled,
it's a horrible thing to me. * I could have danced the "death to
leylandii" dance the day those came down!

I'd love to but I have to persuade Tony first !
--
What other people think of you is none of your business.http://ariesval.co.uk/val/

That won't be difficult Val, one of your cakes should just about do
it :-)

Judith