That’s a very specific, square area, how odd! Usually when Leylandi dies off it’s a bit more random than that. Have the neighbours pit up some sort of square structure on stilts right up against the other side, I wonder...
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Would be interesting to find out if it goes all the way through. Have you had a rummage? I have a rambler rose that grows up a corner of my hedge - Seagull - and it does well. Just gets cut when the hedge gets cut.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
I don't think that the patch is an unusual shape as such, if you Google Conifer disease you'll find plenty of similar images. I think the aphids just start taking the sap from one point then the infestation continues outwards until the aphids die off or go elsewhere. I can't really access back to back unless I sneak into their garden!!! And it's difficult to speak to them because there is a ruddy great big Conifer hedge between us!!!! 😄 But seriously, I think it goes all the way through because at one point I followed some poor advice about brushing the dead wood to create space so that the live sections could grow back together - not a good idea, if I hadn't stopped brushing there would have been complete daylight between us and back to back.
This continues a discussion from way back but we have since solved the problem and wanted to show how, in case it helps others. We have fixed a trellis and staple gunned artificial ivy to the face of it. I hate false plants but it is preferable to the artificial hedges that you can get. It also looks quite real from a distance and is preferable to a dead hedge
Jasmine Officianale. Heavenly scented and attractive to bees.
They are tender until established. So, one should first grow them in a pot for the first year and take the plants indoor for the first winter. Then plant them out about April (when the first frost has passed) and train them up the hedge.
I have nowhere to plant them though. The area at the foot of the hedge is too shady to allow most plants to grow tall enough to get up the trellis. We thought of planting into a trough on top of the pergola but once you have soil and drainage in a trough it would weigh several stone and be too heavy for the pergola. It's also very difficult and precarious for us to work at weaving plants on the trellis so high up and we needed something that wouldn't require constant looking after. We're both OAPs to put it into context!
@Lancashire Lass, I am growing my Jasmines Officinale in a bottomless trough (a raised bed) in a sunny spot. These troughs can be assembled with or without the bottom and I have assembled mine without the bottom.
Assemble your trough without the bottom. Buy 2 or 3 trolley's like these and line them up to the length of the trough.
There is woven tarp that allows water to seep through that you can buy. Cut a piece of that tarp and lay that on top of the trolleys. Then put the trough on the trolleys & tarp and place them all in a sunny spot.
In the sunny spot, fill the trough with a John Innes compost and a peat based multi-purpose compost half and half. Add Blood, Fish, and Bone fertilizer in granular form to the top and mix in. Mulch in farmyard manure at the top.
Then grow the Jasmine vines in the trough in the sunny spot and train them up some bamboo sticks straight up as they grow. You will need to grow them for a full year in the sunny spot before they reach a good height.
Then, at the bottom of your hedge, dig a trench the length of the trough or longer. Fill it with a good peat based compost. Then wheel over your trough, now with the tall grown Jasmine vines trained up the bamboo sticks, and push it onto the ground area over the new filled trench. Remove the tarp from under it such that it is now a raised bed on top of the compost filled trench. Lay the bamboo sticks such that they lead onto the hedge and your trellis in place there.
The roots of the Jasmine vine will now grow down from their raised trough bed and into the ground. The top leaves of the vines will now be able to catch the sun and feed their root system. Tease the vines onto the hedge & trellis and train the tops all over the trellis and hedge now.
You can get a good sized trough without a trellis like below also, if you prefer, and just train the Jasmine Officinale vines up bamboo sticks, in the sunny spot. When in place against the hedge, tease them off the bamboo sticks and onto the hedge or the trellis you have got there already when the vines reach a height they can catch the sun and feed & grow their root system.
You can plant your 6 to 12 Jasmine Officinales indoors in pots on a windowsill or near a sunny window or in a conservatory or green house (if you have one) now. They will grow indoors over winter. Plant out to a good size trough next spring when the first frosts have passed. In the spring or summer after that you will be ready to move your vines over and tease them onto your hedge and trellis.
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I have a rambler rose that grows up a corner of my hedge - Seagull - and it does well. Just gets cut when the hedge gets cut.
I can't really access back to back unless I sneak into their garden!!! And it's difficult to speak to them because there is a ruddy great big Conifer hedge between us!!!! 😄
But seriously, I think it goes all the way through because at one point I followed some poor advice about brushing the dead wood to create space so that the live sections could grow back together - not a good idea, if I hadn't stopped brushing there would have been complete daylight between us and back to back.
We have fixed a trellis and staple gunned artificial ivy to the face of it. I hate false plants but it is preferable to the artificial hedges that you can get. It also looks quite real from a distance and is preferable to a dead hedge
They are tender until established. So, one should first grow them in a pot for the first year and take the plants indoor for the first winter. Then plant them out about April (when the first frost has passed) and train them up the hedge.
It's a monster hedge though and would look so much better if you could get the NDN to shorten it.
Assemble your trough without the bottom. Buy 2 or 3 trolley's like these and line them up to the length of the trough.
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095LFVCJL/
There is woven tarp that allows water to seep through that you can buy. Cut a piece of that tarp and lay that on top of the trolleys. Then put the trough on the trolleys & tarp and place them all in a sunny spot.
In the sunny spot, fill the trough with a John Innes compost and a peat based multi-purpose compost half and half. Add Blood, Fish, and Bone fertilizer in granular form to the top and mix in. Mulch in farmyard manure at the top.
Then grow the Jasmine vines in the trough in the sunny spot and train them up some bamboo sticks straight up as they grow. You will need to grow them for a full year in the sunny spot before they reach a good height.
Then, at the bottom of your hedge, dig a trench the length of the trough or longer. Fill it with a good peat based compost. Then wheel over your trough, now with the tall grown Jasmine vines trained up the bamboo sticks, and push it onto the ground area over the new filled trench. Remove the tarp from under it such that it is now a raised bed on top of the compost filled trench. Lay the bamboo sticks such that they lead onto the hedge and your trellis in place there.
The roots of the Jasmine vine will now grow down from their raised trough bed and into the ground. The top leaves of the vines will now be able to catch the sun and feed their root system. Tease the vines onto the hedge & trellis and train the tops all over the trellis and hedge now.