Dig out Leyladii roots?

Hi,
I have a golden laylandii boundary hedge at the front of our house by the road. It’s great for blocking the noise. A number of trees on the road side have died before we bought the house. The dead trees are still in situ. I’m going to cut out the dead trees and replant. Should I dig out the stumps or could I leave the stumps there and plant around them?
Thanks
Rich

 

What diameter, approximately, are the trunks?

 

What do you intend planting, not much will survive in the middle of a Leylandii hedge.

 

I have a good story about digging out leylandii

 

About 3”

 

More laylandii

 

I’m guessing it’s quite a long one?

 

They are fairly shallow rooted and if they have been dead a while, then using the stumps as levers it would, should, not be too hard to remove them and as many roots as possible before replanting. Fresh soil would help too.

 

First, what killed the trees? How many out of how many need replacing?

I'd be inclined to get out what roots you can, trying not to cut roots of others (use a trowel to scrape back the soil and find the roots, cut the roots with loppers or a mattock), then loosen the soil and work in fertiliser, plant your new trees. Get the taller replacements if you can (but they're more expensive of course...).

 

unfortunately I have no idea what killed them. There is a lot of ivy in the hedge but from what I have read that isn’t likely to be the issue.

I have attached a couple of pictures. A lot of other plants have grown since they have died so will all need clearing.

 

I'll save my good story, available on request, about digging out leylandii roots.

What I would say right now though because it's important from a safety perspective, is that if the dead leylandii still has its branches, I'd whip them off and dispose of them properly as a matter of high priority. That stuff burns better than petrol. It only takes one toe rag fire bug with twisted sense of amusement and it becomes a major blaze.

 

Hm. I can't tell from the picture: are you sure they're completely dead, and not just growing (showing green) on the other side?

 

When we moved here there was a long, high golden leylandi hedge that was on its last legs so decided to remove them. Firstly we cut them down to about a foot above ground then started digging as deep as we could around each stump, at times we had to lay flat on the ground, heads right down the hole to dig out the soil. Next we sawed off the roots, and with the help of a pick axe we eventually got all roots out. We turned the space into a large perrenial flower bed which is really thriving. So moral of story with a bit of hard graft you can remove the blighters. Might add we are no spring chickens.

 

Yes, definitely dead. There are two rows of trees. The ones on the house side are fine. The ones on the road side have green left at all.