We are moving into a new house soon. The back garden has a "hedge" of overgrown conifer leylandi which are over 30' high.
One of our first jobs will be to cut them all back to 6-7 feet to make them manageable ( we don't care what they look like) then in the summer remove them completely.
I don't want to pay a company to do this because, naturally, money is a bit tight when moving house and also I like to have a stab at things myself.
Commercial companies will grind the roots away and dispose of the trees which is nice but I am wondering whether that is necessary as a removed conifer will not re sprout and, hopefully, using the method below, will not leave a large root in the soil to get in the way of gardening.
My idea is to lop them as above, and then, when their time comes, to dig/cut vertically through the radial roots as deep as possible and using a tow-rope with a slip knot around the trunk of the tree to use the car pull them out of the ground.
Has anyone tried this? Or should I bite the bullet and get a firm in?
Also, any suggestions for the disposal of the trees apart from repeated trips to the dump as conifers do not, even when shredded, seem to be the best ingredient for rotting down naturally. As much as we love bonfires, we don't really want a big one (actually we do!) until we have met our new neighbours and got to know them.
Thanks for ideas/experiences...
Steve