What is the best way to lop 15ft Laylandi???

[evelyn]

All though i am no friend to the horrid things i do not wish to kill them as they make a good wind break. I am not stripping the branches below 5 1/2 ft just the ones above to make the main trunk lighter to deal with, these trees were cut from 22ft down to 8ish ft a few years ago and grew back.

I will get my daughter to take a photo and post it on hear later today so you can see what i mean

Eve

[Graye]

I've heard (but have no idea how true this is) that their roots are so shallow that the larger trees can actually be pulled up pretty easily if they are rocked by two people opposing each other with ropes around the trunk. Once the earth is freed up they can be pulled with a rope onto a vehicle. I must admit that a slimmer one of ours was amazingly wobbly when it had a ladder against it's trunk and it wasn't the trunk flexing, it was the whole root area lifting.

Evelyn, how are you managing to strip the branches above five and a half feet without a ladder? Have you managed to get a platform from somewhere? Can't wait to see the pix!

[evelyn]

No nothing so posh, just two scaffolding planks and a breez block or two, and as i am 5ft 9in i can reach up far enough to take off the big ones, it is fairly whispy above 8ft.

Eve

[jenko]

when we ever cut ours, or when i help my grandad, we stand on top of a van, for his hedge, and a tree on its own, if the tree is thick enough, i supose, that you could shimmy up it, without damaging it, but that would be quite hard. erm, i think that you could reer a ladder up to just below were u want to cut it, with some one holding it for you?

[snapdragon]

several syringes of creosote to the roots does wonders... or actually not... I hear you can buy syringes from e-bay... but I wouldn't know anything about that kind of thing ;)

Nod nod you can - I'm going to order some for applying rainbow/shaded colours when I dye wool - you can also get them from smallholder shops/online for dispensing medicine to animals

[evelyn]

Still at it!

i am about 2/3 done now but i will be having a day off today as i am aching all over and my hands and wrists are not to happy with me either.

It is looking good and for the first time in a very long time i had sun shine i my garden in October yesterday, with a bit of luck the lawn will dry out a bit as it has looked like a bogg garden for so long.

The neighbour made me a brew yesterday!!!! i was shoked and a little suspicious as we have never realy got on, she did say that she thought i had cut them a bit low, and was about to start getting difficult about it, but relaxed after i explained that as she can't look after them and i cant look after them when they are over 6ft and this is a one off job they have to be this hight. i am a little worried that she will do what she did a few years ago though.

Her privit had grown to its full potential and was smothering the top end of my garden, so after much negotiation it was agreed i could cut them back and down to a reasonable hight 6ft, it took me a month, and it looked realy good and leval, job done!

No, she got her son to chainsaw the lot down to the ground one week after i had finished.
Barking mad if you ask me.

Pic's to follow honest, just cant seem to get them to load up.

Take care all

Eve

[gdb]

The best way for lop a leylandii?

Definitely with an axe.

Right down at the bottom......

[evelyn]

YAYYY!!!!

Just one left now!!

I am so happy, and in pain. My real joy will be on Nov 5th when i burn the darn branches.

Eve