Unsightly dead leylandii hedge!
GAYNOR16
Posts: 5
Along my driveway there is a dead leylandii hedge about 20ft high....not mine - my neighbours....and nice as they are, they are not gardeners and do not want to cut the ghastly thing down because of loss of privacy! What can i grow which will clamber into this monstrosity to hide it a bit? I was thinking evergreen clematis, honeysuckle, maybe passion flower? They will need to be able to get into the dead trees and support themselves.
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At least it is a dead hedge and not still growing. However if you have a word with the man at the council, he can ask them to bring it down to a reasonable height say 2m. Of course a dead hedge is a liability. If it goes over in high winds, the owners will be responsible, especially as they knew it was dead and did nothing about it. Do you park your car near it. ?
If they take off the dead stuff and just leave 2m high stumps, you could grow quite a few things up it.
Leylandii will have sucked all the goodness out of the soil, so you will have to rejuvenate the soil before planting.
Thankyou - not an issue with cars etc but just looks awful! I will be adding loads of compost etc to the soil before planting anything.
The hedge is down the left side of the photo.... the rest is still a building site! There will be a shrub bed about 1.5 - 2 mts wide along the wall on the left where I am planning to put the climbers....that side is south facing.
Last edited: 26 June 2017 17:27:48
From the photo, the hedge isn't dead as there is strong green growth from the top. It has been cut back into old wood on the photo side and is unlikely ever to green up again. Your neighbours are probably still seeing a lush green hedge which is why they won't be so keen to have it removed.
Unfortunately their side is even more dead than ours!!!! The only green growth was on our side and had to be cut back to allow lorries, diggers etc to get up the drive! Its also completely full of old ivy with massive stems! I can assure you the only living bit of the hedge is up at the top!
I still think the best option is via the council. It is over the height for a hedge to be reasonable. Leylandi will keep growing up from the green bits.
Thanks for that but as we havent moved in yet we dont want to upset the new neighbours !!
In the photo it looks as though it won't be long until it starts to interfere with the telephone wire so it will have to be cut at that point! However, as to what you can grow up it to hide it?? How many years do you want to wait???????? The only thing that I can think of is the most rampant of the clematis montanas but even if you planted ones six foot apart it would still take upwards of 5 years for them even to start to make inroads. Difficult as it may seem, I think you are stuck with them!
The real trick is to make the right hand side as pretty as possible so the eye is drawn there rather than the left hand side!