Row of Leyandii - Removal or something completely different

Posts

• JennyJ Posts: 10,576

  February 2021

  I think the main issue would be getting climbers established in the root zone of the conifers. Even when they're dead there will be a lot of dense root so you might have to cut out a lot to make decent planting holes. Apart from that, you could set about with the loppers/saw and see if you can make a structure that you like the look of, and if not, get them removed anyway. If you don't like the look without climbers on it, it's unlikely that you'll like it with them. I see you already have ivy already growing quite happily, so you could let it make an ivy hedge on the dead conifer framework.
  

  Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  

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• Nollie Posts: 7,529

  February 2021

  I’m currently planning on planting against a scrappy, dying 12m stretch of Leylandii hedge. Too much faff to remove it and the mostly dead branches still provide some privacy from the road. I’m going to construct a raised bed 30cm out from the face of the hedge, install sturdy posts and wooden panelling at the back, paint it black so it disappears, instal tensioned wires then train climbers against it. The climbers will ultimately be about 75cm out from the hedge.
  
  At the rear of the bed, I will chop through the Leylandii roots as I go, dig a trench and install a root barrier, then dig over the ground under the area to be occupied by raised bed, before installing and filling it.
  
  I considered using the remains of the hedge as a climbing structure but rejected it on aesthetic grounds.
  
  Not sure if you have enough space to do the whole hog, but perhaps installing a root barrier and small raised bed would give whatever you plant a better chance of survival?

  Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.

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• Obelixx Posts: 30,090

  February 2021

  When we bought our first house together in Harrow in 1983 it had a row of leylandii planted as a hedge but that had never been trimmed and were taller than the house.  We never had morning sun in the garden and our neighbours never had afternoon sun.
  
  We started by taking off all the branches to just above my head height and then lopped the trunks at 6' high thinking to use them as supports between which I could grow espaliered trees or climbers.   We then set about improving the impoverished soil in order to grow all the new stuff but within 2 years the trunks were rotting and the roots were loose.
  
  I'd be inclined to suggest you take out as much of the trees as you can now but leave a big enough stump for you to use to wiggle out the roots next autumn.

  Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
  

  "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."

  Plato
  

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• StephenSouthwest Posts: 635

  February 2021

  I had a similar sized line of them. I dug the lleylandii out, improved the soil, then sharpened the bases and stuck them back in the ground to support the wires for the mixed edible hedge. I was surpried how shallow the roots were, and they've lasted a couple of years as posts without problem...

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  March 2021

  Id want to get rid of them, dig out the roots and replenished what must be really exhausted and dry soil before attempting to grow anything where leylandii had been. 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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