Brought a lovely house the front of which is spoiled by a huge Leylandii hedge. Moneys tight at the moment so I can’t stretch to a tree surgeon this year. The property was vacant for a while and the hedge is a mess and almost the height of the house, neighbours have rightly and politely enquired if we will be cutting it back. What’s the best way of keeping it down, next year I would like to have it removed completely. I have looked at hiring a long reach saw and chipper from HSS (the volume alone would mean lots of trips to the tip) ideally I want to crop the eyesore down to 6 foot.

Problem with all these evergreens is that once you remove the outer layer of foliage you’re left with a load of twigs and no green. they never seem to really grow any more leaves, either – someone opposite me has had a stick ‘hedge’ for about 2 years followign a similar exercise to the one you’re proposing.

A tree surgeon for a day will probably be ~£250. By the time you’ve hired the saw, chipper and used gallons of fuel going to the tip you might be better off getting someone in. They’ll take the chipped stuff away and it’ll all be nice and tidy.

Mine are currently the same. You can get a chipper to deal with the branches and this also helps to reduce it’s size over carrying branches. The oly problem I have is that local amenity sites don’t take waste of 25mm. Someone has taken a lod of dried stuff for burning but think it will have to sit for a fair while before they can. As for cutting just used a bow saw and climbed up the bottom part of the tree. Tied a rope to the top which was strapped to an anchor in case it went the wrong way but then cut it diagonally to aid in direction of fall.

Wwaswas that’s a problem I’ve been reading about as I googled it. If I took the top off and cut the trunks to 6 foot ish I wonder if the bottom will just die off.

think you’ll have to bite the bullet and get a pro in TBH. you’ll be able to find some youngster who’s set up on his own to do it for ( relative ) cheapness and so long as it’s not a complicated job, ie there’s plenty of room to work on at least one side, then i’d just get rid. leylandii’s flipping horrid.

Have you had some Quotes? It might not be as much as you think. Post a pic up, and I’ll tell you how much I’d charge. Mind you I’ve not got much work on that’s why I’m sat at the computer!

sam_underhill – Member
A tree surgeon for a day will probably be ~£250. By the time you’ve hired the saw, chipper and used gallons of fuel going to the tip you might be better off getting someone in. They’ll take the chipped stuff away and it’ll all be nice and tidy.
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Quotes to cut it back and clear waste away are around the £550 Mark.

removing leylandi is a shitty horrible job.

my advise is pay someone else.

What’s the best way of keeping it down

Was in a similar situation to yourself reducing a 4 x 2 x 6 m hedge down to 2 x 1 x 6.

Armed with an extension ladder and a bowsaw it was devastatingly easy to cut down. The outer foliage looks impregnable but once the green stuff is out of the way the bowsaw goes through the branches and main trunk like a hot knife through butter. It’s not like real wood it’s soft and non-fibrous.

The main trunks are strong enough to support a ladder and if you take it down in layers it’s not too difficult at all.

Once removed the branches are easy to cut/break up into smaller pieces and put in the garden refuse bin. I had a pile the size of two cars but it all went in the bin over a period of a couple of months.

Bowsaws are ~£12

Good luck!

Leylandi itches like hell – make sure all your skin is covered. If there’s space, what about a large bonfire? The secret’s getting a good hot bottom or so I’m told.

Worked back in the 70s.

If I took the top off and cut the trunks to 6 foot ish I wonder if the bottom will just die off.

Well the Leylandi at my house, had been cut back several times over the years before I bought it. What seemingly happens is the trunk will continue to grow just below the cut, normally in pairs. If you planning to top them and get rid of them properly next year then I wouldn’t worry about it. Unless they’ve already caught the disease that going round (killing all evergreens), they’ll survive. Personnally I’d just get a decent pruning saw (easier to get into the trunk than a bow), and ‘top’ them. Just be aware the off-cuts are unbelieveably bulky when trying to dispose of them.

I left my main trunk several years and they were still a barsteward to burn…

Thanks for the replies 🙂

Treefeller YGM, mailed a photo sorry I can’t post pics on the forum as the internets not active yet in the new house.

Tell your neighbours to feel free about cutting it down as you will be too busy doing inside jobs for the next couple of years 😉

I moved into a house with a similar problem, mine was a back garden hedge. Previous owner had said he cut it annually to keep it at his chosen height.

It was some of the best fun I’ve had. Rope, bowsaw, loppers and time. Oh, and a ladder’s useful. The neighbour’s children joined in, and finished the day making a cave or den under the brash.

Took the thing down to ground level and later planted a proper hedge, mixed shrubs, for flowers and wildlife interest. And security too, having thorny stuff, hawthorn, blackthorn and holly. This also saved having to bother about the stumps.

It went about like this. Cut working side branches away to get to the trunks. Attach rope as high as. Move other stuff out of range. Cut V-notch to control fall. Have volunteers at far end of rope ready to pull. Make saw cut from back towards notch. Get the team to pull when the time is right. Crash. Start near the middle and the ends can be angled inwards.

The brash went through a shredder and some of it mulched the new hedge. I’ll have any firewood, thanks, if you’re near me.

YGM re photo

I’ve taken out a couple of leylandii hedges in our previous and current house by hand – it’s not too bad a job with a decent bowsaw, a pruning saw and, most importantly, a mattock. Mattocks are the best gardening tool ever – I spent fruitless hours faffing about with an axe and spade on the first load of stumps, then bought the mattock and did the second lot in no time – cuts through the roots amazingly quickly, far faster and with much less effort.

We had 20 of the feckers to get out when we moved to our new place. Luckily some years previous they had been topped to 8ft high so the first part of the job was done.

We wanted the lot out, stumps and all as it is a garden and we wanted a nice beech hedge instead.

Used a electric chainsaw to cut all branches off leaving 8ft trunks. Luckily the farmer across the way had a loader so he pushed and pulled the trunks accessible from the road out for us, pulled them straight out….

The others I used some wire stretchers to pull them over – one end to the top of one trunk, bottom of another and winch! Used an axe to hack away at the roots and they toppled over complete with stumps.

If you want the stumps out then don’t cut them off to ground level or you will be digging a lot and swearing a lot, 6-8ft of trunk gives you some leverage.

Seen a few lleylandi fires, and they dont half go up, we also had some in the grounds, you think theyre just a trunk and some green, 4 tree choppers took quite a long time to cut them down, loads of smaller branches to cut off to reachthe actual trunk, then a large trunk to cut through, a chipper going full pelt, for hours.

Oh and cutting the top off the things, makes them grow out, you trim the outside and the inside is dead wood, just brown branches, that lok terrible.

Get a proffesional in to do it.

Another vote for a mattock from me, but replanting a new hedge meant that the roots could be left in. If cut down close to the ground, conifers don’t re-sprout. I just drilled a few holes in the stumps to help decay proceed. I felt the rotting roots would benefit the new plants, providing an easy root-run and nutrient.

Got rid of a huge one in my garden last autumn, my advice – get someone else to do it, they are massively bulky and create a huge mess.

Good luck

If you can’t afford to get a man in then it’s a case of getting on with it. Not rocket science, just a bit of hard work, and a bit of common sense. Enjoy.

There is a lot of tree there to do yourself if it is house height. A chipper that would be man enough is going to be £220+ a day from HSS and you’ll be left with a hoofing heap of chip to get rid of. A smaller chipper will mean a lot of branches instead. I guess your council will have a limit on how much you can dump with them on a daily basis as well.
So, your time, plus hire, plus mess – does that not = £550 yet?

Thanks for the replies, I set out with a ladder and a few saws (admittedly not a proper bow saw) to investigate the trees, that was a few hours ago and I got a bit carried away. So it looks like I’m going down the DIY route. I was surprised how easy the tree comes down. A couple of neighbours have offered to help especially with the disposing of the debris. Borrowing a bow saw etc tomorrow. Let’s see how it works out.

If you’re anywhere near Perth, I could come round with my chainsaw if I could take the trunks for firewood.

(and yes it does burn lovely when it’s seasoned)

Seen a few lleylandi fires, and they dont half go up

Some friendly local children set light to our conifer hedge.

The green outer leaves and dead brown inner leaves effectively make a fuel filled chimney with flames leaping out the top. A ten metre stretch of hedge went in about 10 minutes.