Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what sort
of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the
East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow reasonably
tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or is that
totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.

On 17 July, 23:38, "Endulini" wrote:
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what sort
of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the
East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow reasonably
tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or is that
totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.

Twenty feet is nothing, borrow buy an electric chainsaw &, gone. Chop
up, sell logs. Burn twigs.
Any replacement will take years to grow. Why not cut them back? You
can be as savage as you like.

In article ,
harry wrote:
On 17 July, 23:38, "Endulini" wrote:

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what sort
of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the
East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Twenty feet is nothing, borrow buy an electric chainsaw &, gone. Chop
up, sell logs. Burn twigs.

I very strongly disrecommend that. Even electric chainsaws are very
dangerous - one mistake, and you will be lucky if the surgeons can
reattach your hand, leg or whatever. I agree that 6 x 20' leylandii
is nothing, but what is needed is a 24" or 30" bowsaw and a grub-axe
(pr pick-mattock). Cut them down to 6', dig around their roots and
pull them out.

Any replacement will take years to grow. Why not cut them back? You
can be as savage as you like.

If you do that, they will not regrow properly, and will rot in a few
years (perhaps a decade or so). That's not a major problem, and a
reasonable approach is to leave them at (say) 6' and grow climbers
up them. You can combine that with planting things between them
to take over after the leylandii rot.

You're probably a bit dry for bamboo, but there are quite a lot of
trees and shrubs that will do. What height and width do you want?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Well, not quite. You can reduce the height quite easily, although they might look quite strange with truncated tops. But the OP I think is also worried about the width, and this is less easy to reduce. If you cut back beyond the green tips to the branches, they won't regrow, so in practice you can reduce the width only be a foot or two.

"Endulini" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what
sort of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in
the East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow
reasonably tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or
is that totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.

Before you remove them make sure they aren't acting as a windbreak. If they
are, then it's quite likely you can grow things now that you won't be able
to once they have gone.

--

Jeff

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what
sort of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in
the East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive
shading they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they
give. Any suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would
grow reasonably tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some
bamboo or is that totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.

Before you remove them make sure they aren't acting as a windbreak. If
they are, then it's quite likely you can grow things now that you won't be
able to once they have gone.

--

Jeff

I agree with Jeff, we have a row of leylandi trees - much much bigger than
20ft - up one side of a paddock and it is so much warmer and sheltered
there than anywhere else on the property. Do think about it.

kate

"Endulini" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what
sort of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in
the East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow
reasonably tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or
is that totally potty?


How much privacy do you want?
A six foot fence provides quite a lot of privacy without too much shade.
And you don't have to wait for it to grow, or make sure the leaves don't
fall off in winter.
If 20' is far too tall then presumably abot 10' is the hight you want?
If so, a 6' fence will give you most of what you want plus some time for a
screen of trees and/or shrubs to establish.

Only consider a chain saw if you are comfortable with using one and prepared
to take sensible safety precautions.
Given the number sold through the sheds they must have a reasonable safety
record or NL would have legislated them out of existence by now.
However, as stated elsewhere, they are potentially very dangerous if you are
not careful.
However, so is an axe.

We took out a conifer when we moved into our current house because of the
excessive shading - it was, however, more like 50' high and at the south end
of the garden so most of the back garden was in shade most of the year.
We lost a lot of privacy, but the extra light more than made up for this.
We cut down the tree ourself using hand saws and a chain saw.
However, I have been a chain saw user for a long time so am comfortable with
this.

You will probably find (unless the trees have been regularly cut back at the
top) that the top 50% of the tree consists of small branches which can be
easily cut off with a pruning saw.
This would involve getting 4-6 feet off the ground on a ladder or strong
steps.
With all the usual safety precautions.
This is quite within the scope of DIY.
This then leaves you with 8-10' of potentially ugly stump.

If you are energetic you can dig round the roots with a mattock (available
e.g. from Screwfix), cut through the roots and lever the stump out using the
bit sticking up as the lever.
They are usually shallow rooted so this is laborious but not particlarly
difficult.

That just leaves you the task of reducing the stumps from 8' to 4' before
digging them out.
Pay someone, buy a bow saw and build some muscles (and blisters), you might
be able to hire a two person saw, or hire a chain saw.

Oh, and just to throw a spanner in the works I understand it is illegal to
cut down trees whilst there are birds of any kind nesting in them.
A licence can be obtained to disturb certain species which are regarded as
pests.
Otherwise, wait until late September onwards.

If you want someone to come and do it for you then I would guess you are
looking around £700 upwards, especially if you want the roots taking out.
Why not ask a local tree outfit to go round and prepare an estimate?

HTH

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:44:44 +0000, kay
wrote:


harry;894457 Wrote:


Any replacement will take years to grow. Why not cut them back? You
can be as savage as you like.

Well, not quite. You can reduce the height quite easily, although they
might look quite strange with truncated tops. But the OP I think is also
worried about the width, and this is less easy to reduce. If you cut
back beyond the green tips to the branches, they won't regrow, so in
practice you can reduce the width only be a foot or two.

Rather than cutting back it is possible to bend the tops downwards and
fix them to the lower growth. That's what one of my neighbours did to
reduce a 20' high Leylandii "hedge" to about half the height. It
looked a mess at first but after a few years of trimming it looks
quite good.

Steve

--
Neural Planner Software Ltd www.NPSL1.com
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. www.justnn.com

On Jul 17, 11:38*pm, "Endulini" wrote:
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what sort
of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the
East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow reasonably
tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or is that
totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.

If you've any kind of substantial anchorage like a bigger tree nearby
you can remove that size leylandii with a 'tirfor'* winch (you need
one that will pull about 3 tonnes and stong arms or a hefty assistant)
Just get the cable well up the tree to provide leverage but not so
high that the trunk can bend or break under the tension. Attach the
winch at ground level to a suitable anchor and heave away - they
usually come up roots and all.
Just be sure that there's room for the tree to fall where you want it
and that the heaving roots aren't going to lift the patio or anything
else.
You'll have a lot of rubbish to dispose of - that's a lot of sawing
and a big bonfire or hire a suitable chipper - not a toy but one like
the tree surgeons use (some contractors plant hire firms have them)
*That's a brand but it's become a generic name like Hoover

Rod

"Endulini" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess
around 20 feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a
big fan I am quite keen to get rid of them. How problematic is
this likely to be and what sort of ballpark damage to the the
wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the East Midlands if it
helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

You could consider the novel approach. See;
http://share.ovi.com/media/Muddymike...uddymike.10669
For what I did with an overgrown Leylandi :-)

Mike

In article ,
says...
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what sort
of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the
East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow reasonably
tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or is that
totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.


As you probably allready know its not an option to reduce the size as any
brown bits will never regrow, but it is easy enough to get rid of
them yourself. first cut off all the branches a bow saw or pruning saw
are quite sufficiant then cut the poles about 6' above the ground. you
now have 2 choices, 1 leave the poles in situ and grow things up them or
2 dig around each one and using the 6' stump you left as a lever rock it
out of the ground cutting roots as you go, hard work but not difficult.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On 19 July, 13:34, Charlie Pridham
wrote:
first cut off all the branches a bow saw or pruning saw
are quite sufficiant then cut the poles about 6' above the ground. you
now have 2 choices, 1 leave the poles in situ and grow things up them or
2 dig around each one and using the 6' stump you left as a lever rock it
out of the ground cutting roots as you go, hard work but not difficult.

That's what I did when we moved in here. I even used my (then new)
Sunbeam Talbot as a tractor to pull them over with a rope round the
top. I used one of those 14lb sledgehammer-style axes to cut through
the roots very quickly. Roughly half of them had a conventional root
spread, and the other half had a massive tap root going straight down,
hence the need for the rootes wreck as a tractor.

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
T...
In article ,
says...
Hi,

I'm purchasing a house with 5 or 6 reasonable sized (I'd guess around 20
feet tall) leylandi trees at the back and not being a big fan I am quite
keen to get rid of them. How problematic is this likely to be and what
sort
of ballpark damage to the the wallet is this likely to cause (I'm in the
East Midlands if it helps)? Any tips or advice for getting them out?

Whilst I really don't like the look of them nor like the excessive
shading
they give to the garden I do appreciate the extra privacy they give. Any
suggestions as to what I could replace them with that would grow
reasonably
tall without a massive spread? I thought maybe some bamboo or is that
totally potty?

Thanks for any advice.


As you probably allready know its not an option to reduce the size as any
brown bits will never regrow, but it is easy enough to get rid of
them yourself. first cut off all the branches a bow saw or pruning saw
are quite sufficiant then cut the poles about 6' above the ground. you
now have 2 choices, 1 leave the poles in situ and grow things up them or
2 dig around each one and using the 6' stump you left as a lever rock it
out of the ground cutting roots as you go, hard work but not difficult.
--
But it's very likely that there will be nesting birds in there, still.
Do it in January.