Laylandii - what's the big deal?

bouicca21

I took a huge number of conifers, some leylandii, some not, out of my last garden. The neighbours cheered. The birds started to visit, so they were probably cheering too.

fwor

Just to add a bit of detail to a comment above:

My garden was surrounded with conifers when I moved in. Some were Leylandii, and some were a different type of cypress, the exact identity of which I never got to find out.

The problem with trimming is that if you trim regularly on your side and on top, they react by growing ever more vigorously on the neighbour's side - so every time you trim, you have to trim both sides. When they get to any sort of height this can be inconvenient and intrusive for the neighbours, and it's hard to stop big chunks from dropping on their side of you try to trim from yours.

Eventually the novelty of days at a time each year swinging around at the top of the hedge with a chainsaw wore off and I got sick of it. As suggested above, I checked with the neighbours before chopping all 40 trees down and they were delighted at the prospect. I planted two lengths of beech and one length of yew hedge instead - though of course it's easy to underestimate the effort required to keep something like that trimmed instead...

dimbo61

Cutting the down when they get to 20/30/40 feet high costs money.
Do you have ladders which reach 20/30 feet high ?
Are you trained in the safe use of a chain saw ?
Do you have a day or two to trim the hedge every year.
You need a big van to take the cuttings to the tip. They will fill the green/brown bin every time you put it out.

pandora205

My neighbour's Leylandii grew huge and overlapped the fence growing into my garden, blocking light and sapping the life out of the garden - and it was taller than my house, causing worry about the roots and damage. After lots of emails (with photos) to the letting agent the tree was eventually removed, thank goodness.

glasgowdan

Oh dear... there really is a lot of misguided and wrong information...

Leylandii are not evil, or difficult to maintain. They do not cause neighbours to hate you or raze garden structures to the ground.

They require a 1x annual trim with normal hedge trimmers.

They can be kept a sensible height with ease.

In the MAJORITY of gardens the neighbours trim their own sides of hedges. If you own a hedge you do the top.

They do not signify neighbourly disputes, just a desire for privacy.

They do not take up a huge amount of space... similar and less than other similar sized hedges.

They do not render the ground infertile or devoid of nutrient. They do leave it rather dry and lacking in sunlight, which some people misinterpret as "poor soil". I've removed many leylandii hedges and replanted different things with minimal enrichment, just adding some compost.

Hrm, what else?

You will finish up with a garden surrounded by tree trunks with a lot of green at the top

That is nonsense and only applies if you never trim them!

You don't need to speak to solicitors about high hedge acts... It's just an easily controlled hedge. As long as you're sensible you can grow a boundary hedge taller than 2m if you like.

Phew!

tori.k

if your really concerned then rip them out and replace it with something like Griselinia

glasgowdan

dimbo61 wrote: »

Cutting the down when they get to 20/30/40 feet high costs money.
Do you have ladders which reach 20/30 feet high ?
Are you trained in the safe use of a chain saw ?
Do you have a day or two to trim the hedge every year.
You need a big van to take the cuttings to the tip. They will fill the green/brown bin every time you put it out.

The phrase "thick, neat conifer hedge" suggests to me that's it's not 20/30ft high and needing chainsaws.

Jaffapig

Smodlet wrote: »

There are plenty of other shrubs which afford privacy without the complications leylandi can cause, e.g. laurel.

If you keep them under control and prune back to the "dieback" brown foliage every year in the late Autumn (October or November) you should have few problems. It depends how much you value your privacy against how much you want to do with your garden. If you want pretty borders, nothing will grow under leylandi for lack of light and moisture. Vegetables will not enjoy competing with them for same. If all you want is a lawn/courtyard surrounded by a living wall, leave 'em be but trim them back every year.

Thank you, this particularly is useful info!

Jaffapig

camptownraces wrote: »

Before you go any further, have a look at the High Hedges Act, and the Garden Law forum.

Then ask your solicitor to advise you, he won't know the house has this Leylandii hedge unless you tell him.

Thanks, didn't think of this.

Jaffapig

Mojisola wrote: »

This ^

There are plenty of conifers which do make an easily-managed hedge.

Don't start worrying until you have identified the type of conifer.

Indeed, I'm just curious/want to be prepared! I don't know for sure they are.