Garden plant advice

1404

Hi all,

I recently planted a row of Cherry Laurels as a privacy screen. The closest one to the house is 1.5 feet away. Will this cause damage or problems to the house eventually? The house 22 years old.

housebuyer143

What you will find and very quickly is it will engulf the side of your house and if you don't cut it back then the large trunks could eventually many years down the line cause problems. I would cut it back hard next to the house to make sure you always have a gap. Keep on top of it and I don't think it will cause issues to the brickwork. It will entwine with that fence though and I imagine it will ruin it.

Not sure about the roots underground but my Laurel is a beast and you will forever be cutting it back. Don't miss a year or it will be a more than a foot taller the following year. 

Baldytyke88

If you are worried, you could quite easily remove the closest one to the house and the one next to it will fill the gap.

1404

Baldytyke88 said:

If you are worried, you could quite easily remove the closest one to the house and the one next to it will fill the gap.

Yes, perhaps when the one next to it (which is 3.5 feet from the house) starts filling out I could severely trim (or even remove) the closest (1.5ft away from house) Cherry Laurel.

Don't want to remove it yet as I want the privacy screen. That's a public pathway next to the property.

stuart45

Damage to the foundations depends on your soil type. Shrinkable clays can be affected. It also depends on how deep your foundations are, and how tall you allow them to grow. For example, on a highly shrinkage clay a moderate water demand tree like a Cherry laurel allowed to reach it's mature height within 1 metre of the wall would require a foundation depth of 2.2 metres.

1404

housebuyer143 said:

What you will find and very quickly is it will engulf the side of your house and if you don't cut it back then the large trunks could eventually many years down the line cause problems. I would cut it back hard next to the house to make sure you always have a gap. Keep on top of it and I don't think it will cause issues to the brickwork. It will entwine with that fence though and I imagine it will ruin it.

Not sure about the roots underground but my Laurel is a beast and you will forever be cutting it back. Don't miss a year or it will be a more than a foot taller the following year. 

Yes, it will involve lots of maintenance. And I have access to the public pathway on the other side to trim all around the hedge.

As long as it doesn't cause issues to the house then it's fine. 

The soil here has clay, apparently, so that apparently can cause issues with Cherry Laurels being close to buildings.

1404

stuart45 said:

Damage to the foundations depends on your soil type. Shrinkable clays can be affected. It also depends on how deep your foundations are, and how tall you allow them to grow. For example, on a highly shrinkage clay a moderate water demand tree like a Cherry laurel allowed to reach it's mature height within 1 metre of the wall would require a foundation depth of 2.2 metres.

Yes, this area is clay, apparently. The plants will be kept as 6 feet (or just over) in height.

Any idea how I can find out the foundation depth? This is Redrow townhouse which is 22 years old. 

stuart45

1404 said:

stuart45 said:

Damage to the foundations depends on your soil type. Shrinkable clays can be affected. It also depends on how deep your foundations are, and how tall you allow them to grow. For example, on a highly shrinkage clay a moderate water demand tree like a Cherry laurel allowed to reach it's mature height within 1 metre of the wall would require a foundation depth of 2.2 metres.

Yes, this area is clay, apparently. The plants will be kept as 6 feet (or just over) in height.

Any idea how I can find out the foundation depth? This is Redrow townhouse which is 22 years old. 

Not all clays are highly shrinkable. There's high, medium and low. The foundations on a modern house are likely to be about 1 metre, but a test hole is the only sure way to know.

lookbook

Keep trimming them and the roots will stay small enough that it won't affect your house.

1404

stuart45 said:

1404 said:

stuart45 said:

Damage to the foundations depends on your soil type. Shrinkable clays can be affected. It also depends on how deep your foundations are, and how tall you allow them to grow. For example, on a highly shrinkage clay a moderate water demand tree like a Cherry laurel allowed to reach it's mature height within 1 metre of the wall would require a foundation depth of 2.2 metres.

Yes, this area is clay, apparently. The plants will be kept as 6 feet (or just over) in height.

Any idea how I can find out the foundation depth? This is Redrow townhouse which is 22 years old. 

Not all clays are highly shrinkable. There's high, medium and low. The foundations on a modern house are likely to be about 1 metre, but a test hole is the only sure way to know.

I'm doing some planting (of much smaller plants) today. So I will have a look at the soil. My neighbour says it's clay, but I wouldn't have noticed that myself.

Does anyone know how I can find out if my soil is shrinkable clay?

1404

lookbook said:

Keep trimming them and the roots will stay small enough that it won't affect your house.

I'm hoping so. But also now toying with the idea of removing the closest one when the one next to it fills out a bit. The one next to it is a meter from the house. The centre of the stems is just over a meter and the closest stem is about a meter.