Removal of laurel hedge but loss of privacy

ginvzt

In our case it was not our lack of maintenance on leylandii - it is the previous owners who left them that way!

Davesnave

aliasojo wrote: »

Yes I am only an armchair gardener but with respect, if it was only once a year that these things needed attention then I doubt very much people (including me) would even comment about the amount of work involved in looking after leylandii.

Perhaps you lived in leylandii heaven, but mine were in average dryish soil and maintenance was as described. I am not an apologist for leylandii - I don't care for them much - but they do a job. People inherit them, as ginvzt says. I wouldn't want my friend's down the road, which must be 10m tall and impossible to do anything with.

Those well-behaved trees of mine have been left for two years since I sold the property, and they already look slightly menacing! Give it another two years and they'll be a problem.:(

As an afterthought, if the OP wants a screen mainly for the summer months, grape vines trained on a substantial framework of posts and wires would be something productive, as well as attractive, but I understand that all year round privacy is desirable in some places.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

I had 7 golden leylandii as a screen within my garden for the best part of 20 years and kept them trimmed to about 1m at the base and 4m tall. This required the application of a hedge trimmer once a year + a bit of secateur work on the top. I was consistent in doing that. People who have problems with leylandii probably aren't willing to admit that they fall short on the maintenance front.

op is saying one meter from the laurels is too thick though, so even if they kept on top of leylandeii its going to be at least as thick...isn't it?

meercatsunited

we move into a house that had 35ft length of leylandii that were at least 20ft tall and 8ft wide.
removed them at a cost of £250.
Replacing this year with laurel which can be cut back as hard as you like.

we have had golden leylandii in the past and kept them pruned from and early stage but would never plant again because of the work involved.

we waited 12 months before doing anything else to the garden to see what came up.

Lotus-eater

I think alot of you are missing the obvious. A landscaper (ie garden maintenance bloke) is advising someone to plant something that needs a fair bit of looking after. Ummm.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

op is saying one meter from the laurels is too thick though, so even if they kept on top of leylandeii its going to be at least as thick...isn't it?

I took it as the laurel is 1m from fence and has expected growth of about 1m from its trunk in both directions = total of 2m thick, which I agree is thick.

A leyland cypress can be kept to about half that, especially if one can get at both sides. But, I also pointed out that up against a fence isn't a great place for a leylandii, which is why I wouldn't use one there.

I'm just being devil's advocate really and defending the landscaper who isn't here to represent himself, (and also leylandii, which get a bad press because people fight neighbour battles with them or don't understand them.)

But I like your idea of pleached trees, which I missed first time round.

stumpycat

Not a fan of Leylandii here - no matter what height, they guzzle water & nutrients and aren't much good for wildlife. I would ask for some other options from the landscaper.

(and we've just ripped out a very past-it, 80 year old, 8 foot privet hedge and replaced it with mixed native species - does that qualify as non-armchair gardening ;-) )

alleycat`

To be fair their are different types of leylandii and not all of them are the monsters that grow to 50 feet plus.

The golden types do tend to grow much more slowly (i admit they still need work).

I'd, personally, be more concerned that they are shallow routed and do a lot of damage in regards to how far out the routes go.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Why not colt stock fruit trees? You get more light in winter, blossom in spring, fruit in summer and colour in autumn.

Plus blue tits nesting in them.

Much nicer than grotty 1980s plants.

ginvzt

The dwarf trees is what will be going along our fence ;-) I am of the through that the garden has to give you something back. So, a tree should ideally give you some fruit, or at least pretty flowers. Although, we did cut down he flowering cherry - it was quite tall, and even though flowers were nice, we got two dwarf cherries that will hopefully give us some fruit (or the birds!)