Replacing conifers
Tom Davison
Posts: 1
Hello, this is my first post and hopefully you guys can give me some advice. At the bottom of my modest garden I have a substantial "wall" of conifers, I believe leylandii cypress? The plus points are that they provide excellent privacy, as another garden backs onto ours and only a 6ft fence stands between us both. I'd imagine they also serve as a bit of soundproofing from the neighbours at the back, something you'd probably notice after you took them down!
The problem is that I have an east facing garden, meaning in the evening when we're typically going to be sitting outside, the sun is at the bottom of the garden, on the conifers. Not only this, they're approximately 7ft deep meaning I lose nearly a quarter of my garden length to these things! In an ideal world, I'd like to take them out and have a decked area to sit on down the bottom, however I like their privacy qualities and wondered what would be a good less obtrusive alternative that wouldn't take up so much space front to back but provide good privacy and height, perhaps on trellis, on top of the 6ft fence at the bottom.
I've attached a picture if it helps.
Posts
In Scotland you are only allowed a fence 6ft and under without planning permission. It may be the same for you so trellis on top of the fence may be a no-no. If you had lots of money a row of pleached trees would be the biz instead of the hedge.................
I might be way off the mark here with this idea, but cant you cut the branches of the Leylandii back to the trunk on your garden side, don't know how much space this will save you or how it will look, but it shouldn't kill them, they wont grow back but it's something worth trying first rather than going to all the bother of pulling them out, you can also reduce the hight if need be, then consider growing something over them, as i say just an idea, i'm no expert, i'm sure some of the good people on here will let you know if there is any flaws in this idea...
If you were to remove the conifers you could build a pergola with your seating underneath it. With climbers over the pergola, and lattice at the back, that would give you added privacy to 6.5-7ft. You don't want the deck to be raised at all. The pergola would get over the issue of not being able to extend the fence any higher.
Having taken out 200 - yes 200 golden leylandii because they were looking brown in patches, believe me cutting back to the trunks on your side would leave a terrible mess of dead wood on the inside of the hedge. We have dug soil improver and Vitax into the soil where the hedge had been for 20 years, put up a 2 meter fence and covered this with clematis, solanum, roses, honeysuckle, sweet peas, tall growing perennials etc. I don't miss the hedge anymore because we have much more variety and colour.
I think P-G means cutting all the lower branches back to the trunk to the height of the fence giving bare trunks and lollipop trees. Interesting idea..................
Hi tom may I suggest getting fire thorn instead? Dug that lot up firethorn offers a solid wall of thorns to keep out the lowlifes is evergreen and has orange red or yellow berries great for the birds grows high and thick if you want it to and its low maintenance growth is quick
a garden that I pass on the way to work has a pleached lelandii hedge, underplanted with low growing plants and it looks great - privacy and height, without the oppresiveness
Even if the cut back looks bad you can always grow climbers etc etc up and over to create a more aesthetic looking hedge using the trunks and dead wood..
Sorry - I've never yet seen a Leylandii where cutting back into the brown wood has resulted in a pleasing look.
In my experience they're an All or Nothing sort of a hedging plant - either put up with them as they grow or get rid - they do not take kindly to any type of 'management' other than a regular light trim.
If that were my garden I'd pay almost anything to get rid of them (I did here) and replace with a fence with trellis on top. Covered with clematis, honeysuckle, roses etc it looks great and will be glorious in a couple of years' time.
Just work out the square metre-age of useable garden you'll be gaining!!!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.