I have a modest amount of greenery around the garden including Leylandii and some other bushes which get a fairly serious cut about this time of year ( - today in fact!) and a more gentle cut back in the spring. It always involves me climbing ladders and sometimes getting onto the top of the bush to do it properly.
For many years I used an electric hedge trimmer and it took maybe an hour to do the lot (then another 2+ hours to clear up!!)
That hedge trimmer broke and I was given another one, decent brand, but it is now packing up in it's second year. It is jamming on fairly small twigs, and (I';m assuming) the clutch disengages.
So I need to replace it. A chain saw seems overkill (and a bit more dangerous) but if a hedge trimmer is man enough maybe that's what I need.
Any suggestions? (...getting rid of the bushes isn't an option...!!)
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After a decade of smaller 2-stroke trimmers I bought one of these...
www.buyamower.co.uk/product/honda-hhh25s75e-hedgetrimmer.aspx?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsqK0_sKE1wIVBbHtCh0F8w82EAQYBCABEgLZTvD_BwE
Powerful with large jaw capacity means it has the capability to cut down into several years growth without struggling... and the single sided blade actually works better than the two sided once you get used to it.
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that looks wonderful but I can't justify spending that much on something that gets used twice a year at most!!
So let's say budget up to £100... maybe that's my problem though!!
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As you want a specialist tool for a couple of days a year have you considered renting a powerful hedge trimmer. Chainsaws can be dangerous if you are not used to using them or have not done the course. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 22 Oct 17 at 16:45
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That was my thinking as well ON, if your only wanting it every now and again then just rent one from the local tool hire place.
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Leylandii should only be trimmed once a year in Spring or early Summer. Stops them going brown.
Personally I would grub them all out and have a big bonfire, dancing around it around it to celebrate the consignment to oblivion of some more of these horrible mutant trees but that, as I say, is a personal view.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sun 22 Oct 17 at 17:32
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I agree, a bonfire and a Beech hedge.
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Beech doesn't do particularly well round here as rainfall is low. Hornbeam is a good substitute.
For an evergreen hedge I quite like Laurel. The king of hedging though is Yew. Grows faster than you think!
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Heh - ON beat me to it - replied without checking the thread.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Sun 22 Oct 17 at 20:52
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>> I agree, a bonfire and a Beech hedge.
>>
One of these, not far from me, in my younger years I passed it regularly on the way to skiing in Glenshee.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meikleour_Beech_Hedges
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 22 Oct 17 at 20:31
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Yeah, I've seen that a few times too. Thing is, when you live there, you forget how awesomely big Scots things are. Or so my English wife tells me...
;-))
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Yip passed that hedge many a time on my way up to the caravan in Blairgowrie
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My thoughts as well, next door have them and they block out a lot of light into their house and garden. They only block out the early morning sun into our garden, so not too bad. If it were me though I'd just get a tree surgeon in and have the lot removed.
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We have a lot of trees etc., relatively speaking.
I have had the older model of this Ryobi (electric) for 3 years - mine is quoted as 24mm cutting capacity, this is 27mm and an extra 100W,
amzn.eu/6daTOPB
I have had the usual lightweight 2 stroke ones, the Ryobi has been better and cuts thicker stuff. I have only cut my own cable once.
Same with the chain saw. I have abandoned the two strokes and use this Makita electric:
amzn.eu/idtPilg
I got mine from amazon.de which was quite a bit cheaper at the time.
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I have recently bought both a chainsaw and a hedge trimmer due to failure of both my old ones. I didn't need anything fancy so I got them both from Argos, which is close and had them in stock. Both are by Challenge and were around £50 each. I only use the trimmer for shrubs and a couple of small conifers and the 38cm chainsaw has only been used because I am gradually cutting down 2 8ft high Manchester Poplar stumps, about 2ft in diameter. They're fairly rotten and might fall over and damage the garage one day. I can't just drop them due to the area being a bit tight. I have been cutting downwards from the top like cutting a cake. Both tools are mains electric and are coping very well with the work.
The chainsaw stops dead when you release the trigger and the trimmer needs both hands to keep it runnng so you won't be cutting your fingers off !
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I can offer a lot (I mean, a lot!) of experience of dealing with some pretty huge leylandii hedges in the past. I must have spent hundreds of hours dealing with them - three metres tall and double width in some cases.
A chain saw is irrelevant except in one scenario: you want to reduce the height of the hedge. In this case you work off a stable ladder or work platform and you need to get to the main stem. With a mature hedge it's a job that generates a lot of cuttings even only if a small reduction is done. It will stop all upward growth from the main stem.
Otherwise you use a hedge-cutter to trim the hedge; doing it twice a year in my view is a waste of time. The main period of growth is in the summer and the trimming is best done from September onwards. What you must never do is cut into old wood. If you trim all the new growth off you will get brown patches* that signify that area is dead - and it will not regrow. To keep the hedge under control you must not quite cut back to last year's cut. This means in effect that the hedge will slowly get bigger over time.
The big mistake people sometime make is to let a new hedge get too big and then attempt to cut it back, which will kill it, or parts of it. The only thing you can do is to reduce its height and it will not look very nice for some time, until the side growth thickens up.
Personally, I hate leylandii. Its only virtue is quick growth; in the long term it's an absolute pain. It is difficult to maintain for the reasons stated and it sucks the moisture and nutrition out of the soil for a large surrounding area.
I ripped out the 14-year-old golden leylandii hedge at the bottom of my present garden a few years ago and it created a lot of space; the soil has still not recovered. As others have said, there are many far more attractive options, most of which you can cut back hard to re-shape if necessary. My favourites are beech and yew.
* Occasionally brown patches may be caused by extreme drought.
Last edited by: Focal Point on Sun 22 Oct 17 at 19:24
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BTW, the hedge trimmer I bought some while ago after much deliberation is the two-stroke Hitachi CH62EA3. It was £159. It is fairly light, has a long blade which saves tiring and dangerous over-reaching, and starts well. It doesn't seem to be available any more, but I imagine there are comparable newer models.
Last edited by: Focal Point on Sun 22 Oct 17 at 19:42
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I reduced the width of a box hedge and it did look bad but it did green up again.
I would have considered it a win if I had killed a Leylandii hedge.
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Box is a lovely hedging plant, though slow-growing.
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It was until the coming of Box Blight.
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>>
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>> Personally, I hate leylandii. Its only virtue is quick growth; in the long term it's
>> an absolute pain. It is difficult to maintain for the reasons stated and it sucks
>> the moisture and nutrition out of the soil for a large surrounding area.
>>
I agree absolutely. If you must use it, then plant it 10 feet inside the point where you ultimately want a nice hedge, plant that too, then cut down the leylandii when the real hedge is mature enough.
You also have to consider what's on the other side, and your relations with your neighbour, if any. If you plant yours too close to the boundary he has a right to cut back it back right to that boundary. This won't be good for your hedge if it's a Leylandii.
I'm afraid there isn't really a choice with hedges - you either spend a lot of time or a lot of money, or both. We probably have over half a mile of hedges in total - mixed garden hedge, ancient field banks with hedges, overgrown trees, mature trees, brambles, etc, mixed up with barbed wire fencing to keep cattle out. If you can get machinery in then the easiest and probably cheapest is to pay a farmer to drive round your land while he's out cutting his own hedges. If you border on farmland then you can probably get the top trimmed down for nothing as he cuts his own side.
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My bit of Leylandii is only about 10ft across and maybe 8 - 9 ft high. I keep it well trimmed to prevent it getting out of hand. it provides a nice screen so while I wouldn't be bothered if it went, I also cannot be bothered to faff around replacing it, and waiting for the replacement to grow. The bloke behind has some too, also other conifer type trees, which he recently had professionally cut and they now look a mess.
Had a squint at HSS hire and that isn't so expensive, but what happens if the tool breaks in your possession?
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>but what happens if the tool breaks in your possession?
I'd guess it depends on what and how, but when I was renovating my house I broke a rotavator and a cement mixer. In neither case was it an issue, they just accepted it as one of those things.
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>> Had a squint at HSS hire and that isn't so expensive, but what happens if
>> the tool breaks in your possession?
See www.hss.com/hire/terms-and-conditions - Clause 9.
If you think you're going to damage equipment, best to take out Damage Waiver or Damage Waiver Plus.
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Oh, good find. That isn't so expensive, although I wouldn't be planning to damage it!!!
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If I was a'looking for an electric chainsaw massacrer, I'd gofer the 90 squid Makita the Manatee linked to upthread.
78 year-old neighb uses one to cut her logs - as did a woman neighb at a previous owse.
I bought a petrol chainsaw a few years back, read the instructions/warnings etc. and sent the damn thing back.
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Have to admit this type of thing for me is firmly in the "get a man to do it". Our chap comes over annually and deals with the conifers, the willow, whatever other trees are in need, clears down the stuff that's grown up to the gutters and chimneys, and tidies round generally. Takes him from half to one day with two colleagues.
Being in a conservation area he also does all the arcane permissions and paperwork needed if you want to do anything so radical as to cut a stem off some groundsel or something.
Ok, it's not cheap (few hundred) but it looks great for a year, and not a leaf nor twig does he leave behind.
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Heavy duty hedge trimmer or chainsaw or what - Fenlander
