Advice please

Hi Fat Controller

What you have there is a classic Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Ellwoodii'. In the right place these trees can be impressive and attractive, but on your scenario they've far outgrown their position.

As you've mentioned previously they have no central single stem but are made up from a number of smaller, thinner stems. These tend to get to a certain size before gravity starts to pull them out of the bulk of the tree, sometimes resulting in whole stem failure.

In my professional opinion it is time to get rid of these trees, and hire in a professional arborist to do so. Everybody underestimates how much debris comes off these trees. Get someone who has is trained to use chainsaws and chippers, and can do the entire job safely and efficiently and be done with it.

An alternative to using a stump grinder is to simply cut the trees as close to ground level as possible and plant around them. Or, failing that, use brute force dig them out with mattock, spade, pickaxe, iron bar etc... using some of the stems as levers.