High stakes hedge trimming down to the wire

Trimmed a 40 foot leylandii hedge in a tight backyard in Portland last week and the neighbor's skip bin was right underneath the drop zone. I ran a rope from the top to a ground anchor so each cut swung clear, but the wind picked up by noon and I nearly sent a 6 foot section through their bedroom window. Took 7 hours total when I budgeted 4, because every branch needed a second check on the line. Has anyone else dealt with a cramped drop zone and found a better rig setup?

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leeknight20d ago

Man that sounds rough. I had a similar nightmare with a cedar hedge squeezing between two sheds and a fence line, spent a whole afternoon re-rigging lines cause every drop kept snagging on the gutters. Your rope to the anchor trick is solid though, I just added a second pulley mid-way and it saved my back, but the wind still made me swear off hedges for a week.