I don't have much to add. Just don't get a "gardener" (hack-and-slash type) in to trim it because a lot of them don't have much plant knowledge and will merrily cut back to old brown wood which will never re-grow green. If you're aiming to keep it at 8 feet tall (which is very small for leylandii) you'll need decent equipment like a long-reach hedge cutter, and maybe also some kind of moveable platform to stand on when you're cutting it.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I have a Leylandii hedge in SW France planted over 20 years ago by the previous owner. There are 43 trees 1 metre apart, about 2 metres wide and 2.5m tall (about 8ft). I have a handy man who trims it once a year, late summer. It takes him 10 hours at 20€ an hour.
I don't like Leylandii, wish it was a Thuya, but it does the job. It shields the house, drive and not very wide front garden from the road. There is a grass verge the other side.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Poor builders' soil, not enough light, My tightly trimmed 3m tall leylandii hedge has been as good as a yew for 40 years. Now it is thin at the base and with brown patches. Time to replace.
I have planted tiniest yew plugs between every leylandii, Taken the L up a bit, watered and fertlised and the yew is ever so slowly taking over. Give it 5 years.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't like Leylandii, wish it was a Thuya, but it does the job. It shields the house, drive and not very wide front garden from the road. There is a grass verge the other side.
I have planted tiniest yew plugs between every leylandii, Taken the L up a bit, watered and fertlised and the yew is ever so slowly taking over. Give it 5 years.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."