Heavy pruning a cherry laurel

Hi all,
I can’t recall the Latin name, this is a cherry laurel that produces black cherries. Poisonous in all parts apparently
I left it for many years unchecked, then two years ago attacked it with a chainsaw to beat it back into submission. Last year I let it recover. Now I need to make it manageable, and a reasonable shape.
Its too tall, I have to climb on the wall to reach the back and the top and it’s a struggle. The branches are practically interwoven, many are rubbing.
How should I approach pruning it? My thoughts are to start at the bottom, taking out all the minor branches. Then as I move up, remove anything crossing over...and eventually make the whole thing roughly ball shaped.




I can’t recall the Latin name, this is a cherry laurel that produces black cherries. Poisonous in all parts apparently

I left it for many years unchecked, then two years ago attacked it with a chainsaw to beat it back into submission. Last year I let it recover. Now I need to make it manageable, and a reasonable shape.
Its too tall, I have to climb on the wall to reach the back and the top and it’s a struggle. The branches are practically interwoven, many are rubbing.
How should I approach pruning it? My thoughts are to start at the bottom, taking out all the minor branches. Then as I move up, remove anything crossing over...and eventually make the whole thing roughly ball shaped.




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You don't want to lose it, so I'm suggesting, secateurs is the way to go.
I suppose it is about four hours work. Then there’s the disposal activity, which is a real pain. So probably a full weekend all told. I’ll think it over again.