Discard old soil to plant hedge

fluvia

Hi,

I've cleared my neighbour's overgrown leylandii hedge that was coming into my side of the garden and suspect the soil is dead underneath. I want to put new soil to plant a hedge. The strip is 15m long x 1m wide and I'd need at least 40cm deep. How do I discard the old soil that we dig up or how to reuse it somewhere else? 

GardenerSuze

@fluvia Just wondered if you have a photo please?

punkdoc

Whatever you do with the old soil, you are going to struggle to establish a hedge, if there is still a Leylandii next to it.

Fairygirl

You wouldn't necessarily need to get rid of it. If you add loads of organic material - manure, compost, leaf mould etc, and dig it through roughly to get it dispersed reasonably evenly, you can plant into that. 
The only drawback is that, if the hedge is still there on the other side, it'll mean a shortage of moisture, unless you're in a wetter part of the country. Even then, you'd need to be sure you water your new hedging well, especially if you're doing it in the next month or two  

JennyJ

If the Leylandii is still alive, its roots will take all the goodness out of whatever you add. Basically you'd just be feeding the monster. A fence might be a better option if your neighbour won't remove the leylandii.

fluvia

fluvia

I have an electric tiller if it helps. Or would a 1m high raised bed with new soil on top be better to grow the hedge?

JennyJ

They won't grow back from the bare brown wood on your side, but the top and presumably the other side where it's green will keep growing and will keep taking all the moisture and goodness out of the soil.

Fairygirl

It's always going to be the moisture that's the problem, hence my comment too. 
If you can manage it - a bit of a raised bed will help [it wouldn't need to be as high as a metre] but it's the soil mix and watering that are the key factors to establishing anything. 
A basic structure of some kind, and climbers, would probably be a better solution and less effort. 

JennyJ

Wouldn't the leylandii roots still work their way up into a raised bed? Maybe some kind of root barrier sunk into the soil would work?

Fairygirl

I've never found that @JennyJ , even although they're fairly shallow rooting, but it wouldn't do any harm to add something.