"Ian_m" wrote in message
...

A friend removed about 7 house tall leylandi, with my help. We managed to
cut them inititally at about half way point, pulling the top over using a
rope.

Yes, we did that with ours a few years ago. It wasn't difficult. The top
half was dropped with a rope onto the roof of the neighbour's long garage,
dragged into his drive (all with his permission) and taken down to the
church at the bottom of the street to use as a Christmas tree.

Then halved again and finally cutting at the bottom. Didn't take long at
all and all sheds, fences and nearby house were neatly avoided. Oh if you
trim away the area where you are going to cut its a lot easier.

Indeed it is and it's not too difficult if you start at the bottom.

He then spent a week chopping the bits up with two visits per night to
local top in his car, before hiring a van for the day at the weekend and
completing the job.

We let ours grow up again, I don't want to lose it because it's a nesting
site to very many different birds and such places are becoming rarer. If we
ever did we'd start by taking off the lowest branches until there's only the
trunk then cut it into handy lengths and drop them vertically, the rope over
a higher branch stump to aid control, one by one. It's what we've done with
other trees.

Disposal would be the most difficult part. We'd use a shredder for smaller
parts, that would be used on the garden. Thicker branches would be dried and
stored for fuel in a few years.

Mary