Bloody Leylandii

[Allan Carr]

At the bottom of our garden is a drive to what used to be an old manor house, now converted into apartments. Lining this drive on both sides and right up against our fence (and that of 5 other neighbours) is a large Leylandii hedge. When I first moved in 22 years ago, these damn trees were 50 feet high and stretched 10 feet over our garden. After a lot of petitioning by all the people affected by these trees, the residents committee of the apartments agreed to cut them back to 20 feet high and we could then cut them back to the boundary from our gardens.

However, a new committee has now taken over and they have decided that cutting these trees is an unwarranted expense for them and some residents want the 'extra privacy' afforded by letting these trees grow to their full potential. The damned things grow about 6 feet every year!

One of our neighbours (not affected by these trees) is a local councillor and got one of the officers to come and have a look at the situation but he said that it was not enough of a nuisance to be covered by the recent act pertaining to problem hedges.

So the situation is that we can cut these things back as far as the boundary (it currently takes 2 days work three or four times a year - time that could be better spent diving) but we are not allowed to cut the tops. The rate that these things grow it will soon be impossible with normal ladders to cut back the higher reaches and apparently, due to access (you can't get a cherry picker into the back gardens), it would cost in excess of £500 a time per house to have them trimmed by tree surgeons. Hence we have the prospect of having to abandon a large area of our garden to these damned trees since nothing will grow in their rain shadow.

I was trimming the trees a few weeks ago when one of the residents, who claims he is a barrister tackled me with an angry 'What the hell do you think you are doing?' When I said that I was only doing what the law allowed me to do in order to preserve access to my garden, he said that he didn't give a f*** about my garden and that if I cut off an inch too much anywhere, he would have great delight in suing me for every penny that I had.

Is it any wonder that there are incidents of hedge rage?

[broady]

Do Leylandii suffer from any diseases that might be accidentally introduced ?

G

.

[Dr T]

i planted 35 6ft leylandii a few weeks ago to make a nice hedge !!

ash

[nickb]

Originally Posted by Allan Carr

... he said that he didn't give a f*** about my garden and that if I cut off an inch too much anywhere, he would have great delight in suing me for every penny that I had

Nice guy.

Does he have a nice car? It'd be a shame if something happened to it: with a key for instance.

[abucksdiver]

I hear that these Laylandii are alergic to copper nails being hammered into them.... (It takes a while, but they get sick and die...)

[Allan Carr]

I was wondering about some 'nice' disease that could be introduced - copper nails are a bit too obvious. Pity they don't suffer from something like Dutch Elm Disease.

[Allan Carr]

Originally Posted by nickb

Nice guy.

Does he have a nice car? It'd be a shame if something happened to it: with a key for instance.

I don't even know what he looks like - this interchange took place through the bloody hedge!

[CotoChris]

They are a fire nuisance. We had a 100m long Leylandii hedge for 20 years, I cut the lot down and one small match the whole thing flamed up like mad. I cut them as it was a fire risk but never thought they would burn that easily. Burning the hedge would be extreme act to do, in a dry summer it is a real risk.

It's a bugger to kill the trees other than chainsaw. I'm tempted to spray 'Roundup' or Glyphosphate wich is a sistemic herbicide. I havn't used it on a tree but imagine it would be hard. You will need to spray all the green parts.

If it grows to tall then it will be a 'menace' and the councilor will have a different view (aplogies for the pun!).

Asa Leylandii grow they thin from the bottom, so the taller they grow the bigger the stem and more open it becomes. Henceforth privacy is greatly reduced, especially if you trimm hard. Make sure you throw the rubbish on their grounds. I'm surprised it's you that have to cut, I would have thought that was wrong and they had to cut what overhangs.

[Leg Of Salmon]

One word...

Paraquat

[liamm]

i managed to accidentally kill a hedge by cutting it back to the boundary, my neighbour was annoyed but he had agreed beforehand that the boundary slpit the lealandi (sp) in two. I think legally you have to return the trimmings to the person who owns the land that the trees are rooted in, that might be fun.