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Help with leylandii please

SL123SL123 Posts: 7
in Problem solving
My neighbour asked if he could trim our leylandii and this is the result.  We would like to keep it but obviously not as it is on the top.  Any ideas or suggestions please to rescue or camouflage the damage. Thanks
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  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    Do you have any other images?
    Or failing that, how wide and high is it?
    It is hard to tell from the angle you took the photo.

    It looks like it is brown and those bits will not grow.
    However, it is possible that keeping the sides well trimmed and the top at about the same height you may be lucky and new side growth could be trained to cover it gradually.

    If you are lucky there may be some bits with tiny bits of green left.
    Can you see any?
    If there are even small bits they can and will grow, but take time.

    If it is going to be an ongoing problem I would bite the bullet and replace it now with something like Yew or Thuja which will grow from old wood.
  • SL123SL123 Posts: 7
    Thank you for your reply.  The photo was taken from our upstairs window (zoomed in). The hedge is around 7-8 feet high and just over 2 feet wide and around 25 feet long. It is definitely brown on top, there aren't any green bits and it has been like this for just over a year - we waited to see if it would regrow,    We're concerned about the cost of replacing with an instant hedge at around 5 feet high as it will be very expensive (neighbour said they would replace but I don't think they realise the cost).  You said possibly to train the side growth to cover it - how could we do this?
  • SL123SL123 Posts: 7
    This is the only other photo we haveve.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Nothing will grow from the brown wood unfortunately, so that's not going to recover. You could allow the sides to grow, and then wire some of those together across the top, but it'll take a while, and may still look poor. If you only see it from the odd window, that may not be such a big problem though. 
    The lesson there is - don't let neighbours do your garden  ;)

    An instant hedge will certainly be very pricey, and then you have the problem of removing that hedge, properly prepping the ground as it won't be great, and then being vigilant over a good length of time to get the new one established. That isn't easy with a mature hedge. At this time of year you can get bare root hedging, and depending on what you chose - that will establish well and grow to a decent size within a couple of years, with a lot less effort.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I think I'd be inclined to get rid of the hedge, move the fence back to the boundary line and plant some nice shrubs inside the garden.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • SL123SL123 Posts: 7
    Thanks for your replies.   I've just taken a photo now and there looks to be a little more green, perhaps we could train it to cover??? We'd really like to keep the hedge, as you said removal and replanting is tricky.  To be fair our neighbour was really sorry when he realised it wouldn't grow back, he thought he was doing us a favour! 
    The fence was in the neighbour's garden, they are redesigning theirs at the moment and have removed the fence and are putting decking down. Our garden is the other side of the hedge, behind our neighbour's garden at a lower level.  Hope that makes sense!   I do appreciate your comments. 
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    edited October 2023
    At two feet wide it may not be so bad or take a lot of time to "recover" (see what I did there :D ).
    Sorry,.

    What you need to do is let any pieces of growth near the top and heading in the right direction grow on a bit to cover the brown, prune the tip so it will branch and spread.
    The rate that they grow it should not take that long.

    If you really want to keep this hedge then a year or so with it looking a bit scrappy at the top is not so bad?
    I don't think it will take long.

    I wish I could gauge or tell you how long to leave the bits that head in the right direction, maybe let whatever grows around  a quarter to half way then prune the tip so the rest of it branches and spreads sideways over the top.
    Keep checking and doing this until it gets covered.

    You know which side grows the most, usually the south side of any hedge is more vigorous so let the more rampant side/direction grow across while still trimming the rest as usual.

    Of course any pieces that grow in the right direction are good, so you will just have to look and see what does, then prune to make it branch.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Sorry, I assumed you were "this side" of the fence and hedge, and the neighbour was on the far side from the perspective of the photos.  Does your garden wrap around the back of the next-door neighbour's garden? Or are you in an upstairs flat that has a garden behind the downstairs neighbour's garden? 
    You shouldn't see the top of the hedge from inside your garden, but if you want to try covering over the top to improve the view from your window, you could let the upper parts of the side growth get long enough to bend the branches over the top of the hedge from both sides and tie them together (or tie down to the bare branches. Hopefully the branches will then firm up in those positions and make side shoots, but you won't be able to cut the hedge back to the height it is now - you'll have to keep it a bit higher. Although I suppose you could cut out some more of the dead stuff in the middle without touching the green sides, to make room to tie the branches in at a bit lower level. Another risk is that letting the upper parts grow long enough to do that might shade out the lower parts of the sides and make them patchy. The neighbour's side (nearest the camera in the most recent pic) is already a bit patchy from being shaded by the fence and I don't think those bare bits will fill in. It'll never look like it used to, but you might, over a number of years, achieve something that you find acceptable. And you'll need to tell the neighbour your plans - you don't want them trimming it back from their side if you want long branches to train over the top.


    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • SL123SL123 Posts: 7
    Many thanks to you both for your replies Rubytoo and JennyJ.
    Yes, our garden wraps around our neighbour's garden, and is at a lower level than theirs so we can't see the top from our garden but we can from our house!
    We are not gardeners (sorry) so I really do appreciate your helpful comments.  I only wish you lived near enough to help with the practical recovery!  

  • StephenSouthwestStephenSouthwest Posts: 635
    Looks like you'll be going for a hedge comb-over!
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