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What to grow in and under a leylandii hedge

nigeleeezzzznigeleeezzzz Posts: 4
edited May 2023 in Problem solving
Glad I found this forum!!
We’ve recently moved to a new house with hedges both sides of the garden. The hedge to the right has been cut back and is now dead on our side up to the top 2 or 3 feet. The other side of the hedge looks great and hasn’t been hacked to death. I don’t want to take the hedge out so we are looking at growing a variety of shrubs and climbers underneath it. It faces north easterly. Can anyone recommend what we should plant? We’d like some colour and ideally as much evergreen as possible. 

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Hello @nigeleeezzzz and welcome to the forum 😊 

    It is notoriously difficult to get anything to grow close to a row of Leylandii … it looks as if you have some very healthy ivy there … I’d be very happy with that … if you ‘stop’ it as it reaches the tops of the bare trunks  it will soon spread across horizontally and cover all the trunks you can clip it as you would trim a hedge to give the impression of a wall of attractive foliage … and so much more quickly than trying to establish anything else there. 

    😊 


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





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I doubt anything much will grow there - especially not shrubs. Ivy will manage, and it looks like that's already present, but the hedge itself is the problem. They suck up so much moisture that it's extremely difficult to get anything established and thriving, even in wetter areas.
    We get many queries about the same problem every year on the forum.  :)

    The only solution is a bed farther in, but that means losing a lot of garden. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Not to everyones taste but we have different bamboos growing alongside a Leylandii. They do have to be watched once they get going as they tend to go where you don't want them. You would need to put some barriers down to curtail them. When big enough then you have your own bamboos for use in the garden.
    On another one though on the NE side of our polytunnel we have the chocolate vine (Akebia quinata). It is semi everygreen with small flowers.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Yes - that might survive @bertrand-mabel.
    Not a plant I've ever used, but it's the establishment of anything climbing that's the important bit, so you have to do some work on the prep @nigeleeezzzz  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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