I've got these damn things on my border that now need cutting down to size. I had a go at one with a hand saw, it took ages, so I was thinking about one of these extending, electri chain saw jobbies: www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb426gdo-20cm-750w-electric-pole-saw-pruner-230v/99641
There's no branches bigger than about 100mm.
I want them down to a couple of metres and I'm not confident about wielding a chain saw from a ladder, or above my head.
Anyone used one of these and got any comments?
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Get a contractor to do the job for you. Far safer. Personally I would have them taken out completely and replaced with something more manageable
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Exactly what I did at a previous house, I am allergic to them and they give me a painful rash on contact.
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I keep mine low with a hedge trimmer. I don't have a hedge. I cut the thicker branches (in the one year they needed doing, when I was reducing the height) with a small bow saw. It now takes me not-very-long-at-all each autumn to cut them back to the required height. Takes longer to tidy up afterwards and get the stuff to the tip!!!
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Don't expect them to grow back into a nice shape - cypresses don't work like that.
You need to keep them trimmed regularly to size right from the start. By the time they are too big, it's too late.
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If you prune them down to 2 metres, they will thicken out sideways. The top will not regenerate, and look ugly if you can look down on them.
They are just about impossible to successfully trim at the sides, since if you get past the growing area, they don't grow off old wood.
As above, take them out, and plant a new hedge - yew is good if you want evergreen, and it's easy to control - trim once a year.
Or plant a mixed hedge of native shrubs/trees.
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Yes to both, CGN. I can't see a need for anyone to be wielding a chain saw in their back garden.
We have leylandii too - came with the house, and are coming up to their second expensive re-levelling. I'd love to rip them out and have a copper beech hedge instead but that would mean an awkward (and long) transition period of looking straight into the upstairs windows of the house behind, which the cypress hedge screens so well.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Mon 14 Mar 16 at 15:02
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Just had ours done last week - as always, got a man in. It's not that cheap but we do it every two years so looked at that way it's not too bad.
He does the conifer hedge, which is about 3 metres high and 10-15 long, he sorted out a huge willow and reduced the size considerably, stripped loads of virginia creeper from the front and sides of the house which had got up to the chimneys, and chopped down by half two huge pyracanthus that reach the upstairs windows and tend to blind the postman if left too long.
£350 all up, after a minor haggle, all neat and clean, done in one day. Seems ok to me, others might think that's a lot I guess.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 14 Mar 16 at 15:25
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I have long and extensive experience with leylandii hedges, both the standard dark-green and the golden varieties.
I have great reservations about their use in gardens. As has been said, they will not re-grow if you cut into dark (i.e. ripe) wood. That means that if you take out the top, the top will not shoot, and if you trim the sides too short you will get permanently brown areas with no re-growth. If you avoid this, the hedge will slowly get wider.
Their growth rate can be phenomenal. They can easily grow 50cms in one year. The tallest documented example is 40m and growing. If you do not get a grip on them early on they will rapidly grow out of control. Their roots, though comparatively shallow, can get into drains and undermine buildings, and also, because they are evergreens, they transpire continuously and can dry out footings, causing subsidence.
I have used both electric and petrol chainsaws from a ladder to lower leylandii hedges; it is potentially highly dangerous, due to the need to reach into the plant (if it's tall, it's also wide) to cut the main stem. I don't recommend it. Get professionals to do it (and dispose of the cuttings, which take up a surprising amount of space and are heavy). Check they are insured; otherwise, by employing them you can be held liable for any accidents.
My eventual solution to the problem at the end of my current garden was to cut the hedge down, working from ground level, with a petrol chainsaw, leaving stems of approx. waist height. After a couple of seasons, the roots have sufficiently weakened for it to be relatively easy to get out the stump, aided by the fact that you have some leverage if you don't cut the stems to ground level.
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How much are you taking them down? If you chop a lot off the top, there's a good chance they will die. Which some might argue is a good thing....! 4" branches suggests they are substantial trees.
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>>> If you chop a lot off the top,<< they will look stupid.
If you can't let Leylandii grow to it's natural, beautiful shape then they want to come out altogether.
Pat
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>> If you can't let Leylandii grow to it's natural, beautiful shape then they want to
>> come out altogether.
Unfortunately its natural beautiful shape happens to be be tree over 30 metres tall. Absolutely no place for Leylandii in small garden in my opinion. So many better alternatives
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As someone said CGN, while ripping it out and starting again might be desirable, if the hedge is forming a screen (which mine does) then I wouldn't want to wait years for the new one to grow.
Mine is maybe 3m tall and 3m long, across part of the end of my garden, and stops us seeing the old boy in the house at the end in his bedroom, and vice versa. It's low enough that iot doesn't block the sun much, not at the time of year when you're in the garden anyway.
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Well I guess i would keep it now in that situation. I just would never plant one in the first place.
People often tell me that they are all right if you trim them regularly. That is indeed true and I know of some nice looking Leylandii hedges. Unfortunately too many people don't trim them and they then get out of control causing the problems that regularly feature in the newspapers.
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No Leylandii round here thank goodness.
The local palazzo has a winding drive lined with poplars, like a road in France. Is cool O.
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"The local palazzo..."
Not your pad, then, AC? You have the humble casetta at the end of said drive?
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>> Not your pad, then, AC? You have the humble casetta at the end of said drive?
I've never claimed to live in a palazzo. The house I live in is a garage built in 1947. Very nice too.
There's a palazzo fairly nearby though. The odd farmhouse and stable. You know the sort of thing surely?
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>> No Leylandii round here thank goodness.
Oaks, corsican pines, a tiresomely regular new plantation of small conifers, the odd horse chestnut and a lot of spindly birches good for firewood, along with one or two much bigger and better ones.
I've posted this before and it has vanished. Can't help wondering why.
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>> >> If you can't let Leylandii grow to it's natural, beautiful shape then they want to come out altogether.
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>> Unfortunately its natural beautiful shape happens to be be tree over 30 metres tall.
>> Absolutely no place for Leylandii in small garden in my opinion. So many better alternatives
>>
I have to trim my neighbour's Leylandi - he trims the top and his side.
It is a pain twice a year. The stupid old woman who used to live there planted the damn things too close to my fence.
They are used in vast numbers as windbreaks/shelter breaks on the Canterbury plain by Christchurch New Zealand.
When travelling there its all you seem to see around every field etc. for mile after mile.
They are usually not trimmed so you can see how big they grow.
www.alamy.com/stock-photo/shelterbelts.html
The topic is so boring and not easy to capture the images there seems to be very few photos online.
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Hire a proper long-reach hedge trimmer, then trim ze hedge biannually, or twice a year with a Bosch cordless hedge trimmer.
www.hirecentres.com/shredders-hedge-and-tree-maintenance/200-hedge-trimmer-long-reach-petrol.html
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Thanks for all the replies.
They were planted many years ago to soak up the water in my garden. My neighbour's land is higher than mine and he has a number of extensions and a garage whose water drains into butts - he never empties them and my garden bears the brunt. The leyandii do the job magnificently. I'm on clay soil and anyone around the North Beds/Northants area will know what rain we had last week.
They also form an effective screen from the neighbour.
I do keep them down to around three metres with steps and a hedge trimmer, but SWMBO now wants them lower.
As a poor pensioner I thought the chain saw would be the most cost effective option.
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Unless you really know what yo a doing please forget about the chainsaw. Sometimes it's worth paying an expert.
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As well as a Bosch electric chain saw, I have a Titan chain saw on a pole - it was bought specifically to trim some horizontal overhanging branches about 2-3 m above the ground, (not topping Leylandi). I would regard it as a tool to get a (or maybe several) jobs done at your convenience. About the cost of a 60 min visit from my local friendly professional. Any subsequent jobs are therefore seen as a a bonus.
Typical chinese tool, although the chain is actually labelled as a reputable brand (Oregon?).
I will not use a chain saw up a ladder and recommend proper safety trousers and gear to minimise the risk of cutting your legs off when working on a saw horse. Keeping the chain tensioned correctly is a safety issue and can be timeconsuming.
My pet prefessional is Swedish and with an artificial hip goes up trees like a monkey waving his stationary petrol driven saws around like something from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . But he did learn his trade in the Swedish forests and has all the safety gear.
Would I buy another Titan if it failed? Yes, but only for a specific job.
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>> I do keep them down to around three metres with steps and a hedge trimmer,
>> but SWMBO now wants them lower.
>>
>> As a poor pensioner I thought the chain saw would be the most cost effective
>> option.
Yup, cutting SWMBO up with the chainsaw is an admirable cost effective solution, far cheaper than divorce
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I climb up our Leylandii with a ladder, stand on the top and prune the branches with a manual handsaw. Done it for years. Disturbed a brown owl once but did not fall off. Leylandii wood is soft unlike willow or oak.
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>> I climb up our Leylandii with a ladder, stand on the top and prune the
>> branches with a manual handsaw.
I climb up a tall set of steps that are lashed to the nearest trunk.
I use loppers. Gardena Comfort Pruning Lopper 500 BL 8770-51
Overall length: 50 cm: 620 gr.cutting: 35 mm.
Yes just 620 grams. I think they are by far the best on the market.
I have just found them at £20. At that silly price I think I might get a spare one.
if you need to cut thicker branches then loppers with extending arms are available but they are often steel/heavier and of course with your arms wide apart you are less stable.
I have never used a saw even a bow saw for the job.
Gardena 8790-20 are my secateurs of choice as they have an adjustment for hand size .
I have small hands and the secateurs only open part way so they reduce the strain/ effort.
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I dug out a leylandii hedge a couple of years ago. My back is very nearly fully recovered. My garden fork however, well, it fought valiantly, but it did not survive the ordeal.
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Wrong tool. Use a digging bar to cut through the the roots
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"Wrong tool. Use a digging bar to cut through the the roots"
My response to that is "Mattocks!"
Last edited by: Focal Point on Tue 15 Mar 16 at 00:00
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>> Wrong tool. Use a digging bar to cut through the the roots
>>
I use a woodman's axe: far quicker just to sever and leave the roots. They do not regrow...
>>I dug out a leylandii hedge a couple of years ago. My back is very nearly fully recovered.
My back is fine - after a sciatica attack (!:-( - I do daily exercises - make a huge difference. I can lift sacks of compost and full hives again..
Last edited by: madf on Tue 15 Mar 16 at 06:51
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I think the only sensible use for Leylandii, other than as a fine single tree in a park, is as a temporary screen.
Plant the hedge you really want in the correct place, but meanwhile plant leylandii about 10 feet inside that line to grow quickly and provide a screen. Then when the real hedge has grown up, cut down the leylandii and reclaim your garden.
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An axe will work but you won't need to be on your hands and knees with a digging bar and the leverage it gives you will make light work of the job. An invaluable tool to have in the shed.
www.wonkeedonkeetools.co.uk/bars/how-to-use-a-digging-bar-to-remove-a-tree-or-shrub
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When taking out trees, cut the top down to about five feet high, you can then use the remaining trunk as a lever to pull out the base.
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Be very careful in disposing of any trimmings. They are full of natural oils and burn very fiercely even when newly cut. They must be a fire risk even in situ but I guess we are all too worried about the darned height to th No above it its other nasty characteristics.
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Petrol, then go out for lunch. Job done.
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Pruning leylandii - CGNorwich
