Thanks very much for all the advice guys. So I stopped at screwfix on the way home from work and got a mattock and pick to see how it would go on a couple of trees. The younger inner row was easy pushed over once the roots were fully chopped, the older outer tree took a lot more chopping, its wobbling but I'll definitely need a winch or something to pull it out. If I was to continue id also pick up a reciprocating saw as mentioned by @K67 because it was a fair bit of chopping.
I'm going to price up some professionals about my area to see what they could offer stump grinding wise or maybe hire a small digger and lever them out as I don't think I fancy doing the above 130 more times. I do think I need them all out now though because the roots are everywhere and I'm not sure about planting in between.
@Lucid you asked how I took the branches away. It was a combination of a chainsaw for the large branches and a pole saw multi-tool for the higher branches. It was very overgrown and the branches very spindly but not too difficult. I made it harder by not getting a chipper and instead dragging them all by hand to the field and burning them as I went (I wouldn't advise this if you have alot to do) they did burn fast though.
I'm also not fully decided on Laurel so I'll definitely look into the other options mentioned like the different types of beech.
@Palustris - thanks for your reply. I'll add a Bosch electric chainsaw to the exploration list. I wasn't immediately looking at chainsaws as I've read you should really have training but it looks like the Bosch chainsaw is for DIY use so I guess it's smaller? We're currently doing our once weekly rubbish tip run and we have bought an incinerator, which I appreciate isn't the most eco option but we've got so much to have to get rid of. There's going to be so much conifer to get rid of so we need to come up with a plan - might need to hire in a green waste skip I guess. I'm sorry to hear about your tendonitis - I'm actually wondering if I've got the startings of something similar in my left elbow right now. It started as what I thought was tennis elbow in the month leading up to our house move, which I think was brought on by all the heavy lifting. But it's still here 4 months later and while the pain has shifted a little since then, it's still hanging around and a bit more around the extensor tendon where it seems to be inflamed. I'm hopeful it will start to improve! I wouldn't say it's extremely painful but painful enough at times so I do appreciate how horrible yours must feel.
@darach.fitz - thanks for your reply. It sounds like some kind of chainsaw and polesaw are going to be the tools to go for. I quite like Palustris's idea of an electric chainsaw, rather than a full on chainsaw. I was looking in to chippers - do you think an at home garden shredder would handle it? I was planning to get one of those eventually anyway. Not sure I could justify buying just a chipper, plus I have no idea where all the chippings would go. I think we were envisaging we'd have to hire a garden skip and also use the incinerator. But I can imagine a skip filling up very quickly. I reckon we have about 36 metres worth to get rid of. On the vote of what you replace it with I'd also go for mixed native hedging. It was what I was envisaging to replace our leylandii with, until I got the useful advice on here that it gets massive and is very thorny, so not suitable for a small garden. You'd be able to fit in a lovely stretch of it from the looks of it.
Our neighbours planted a 100 foot long leylandii hedge 35 years ago on the boundary of our gardens which with annual pruning ended up abut 8 foot high and 10 foot wide! 5 years ago we both made the decision to cut the leylandii down to the ground and after adding a layer of top soil we planted 3 foot yew whips in between the stumps. They have grown fantastically and are so easy to prune and the hedge now looks neat and tidy. Since then 3years ago we replanted other leylandii hedges on both properties, again by leaving the stumps, (too much like hard work) with yew which have also grown well and are so easy to manage. Due to the dry summers of 2019 and 2020, we laid a seep hope along the new whips to help with watering. Well worth it.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'm going to price up some professionals about my area to see what they could offer stump grinding wise or maybe hire a small digger and lever them out as I don't think I fancy doing the above 130 more times. I do think I need them all out now though because the roots are everywhere and I'm not sure about planting in between.
@Lucid you asked how I took the branches away. It was a combination of a chainsaw for the large branches and a pole saw multi-tool for the higher branches. It was very overgrown and the branches very spindly but not too difficult. I made it harder by not getting a chipper and instead dragging them all by hand to the field and burning them as I went (I wouldn't advise this if you have alot to do) they did burn fast though.
I'm also not fully decided on Laurel so I'll definitely look into the other options mentioned like the different types of beech.
Thanks again all !
@darach.fitz - thanks for your reply. It sounds like some kind of chainsaw and polesaw are going to be the tools to go for. I quite like Palustris's idea of an electric chainsaw, rather than a full on chainsaw. I was looking in to chippers - do you think an at home garden shredder would handle it? I was planning to get one of those eventually anyway. Not sure I could justify buying just a chipper, plus I have no idea where all the chippings would go. I think we were envisaging we'd have to hire a garden skip and also use the incinerator. But I can imagine a skip filling up very quickly. I reckon we have about 36 metres worth to get rid of. On the vote of what you replace it with I'd also go for mixed native hedging. It was what I was envisaging to replace our leylandii with, until I got the useful advice on here that it gets massive and is very thorny, so not suitable for a small garden. You'd be able to fit in a lovely stretch of it from the looks of it.
Lucid
Since then 3years ago we replanted other leylandii hedges on both properties, again by leaving the stumps, (too much like hard work) with yew which have also grown well and are so easy to manage.
Due to the dry summers of 2019 and 2020, we laid a seep hope along the new whips to help with watering. Well worth it.