If you don't want to take it out - and I can understand that - you don't have many choices left.
However, you could bite the bullet, remove it and replace with a basic fence (posts and chicken wire to form a barrier to keep dogs in) and a hedge which can be kept tighter - like beech or hornbeam, or you could hack back to the trunks and attach chicken wire and grow ivy on it like a hedge. That will give you the green background to the border. You won't kill the lleylandii doing that either. Easier to keep trimmed tight and to the height you want, and the trunks will be even more robust then fence posts. I'd agree that trying to camouflage dead trunks is never great, but that would be better as you'd have no 'brown' period through the year. There's a house near me which has had an ivy fence for over twenty years. I know people will disagree with me about it, and complain about fences getting overloaded with ivy etc, but if it's correctly maintained on a sound structure it lasts for a very long time. It's only an issue if the fence/support is dodgy to start with.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I do like the sound of any ivy fence Fairy! I wasn't sure if the trunks would die or not, but I guess technically the neighbour's side is still alive (albeit smothered by a fence - I think it has been cut back quite hard behind it, to allow the fence to be attached to the trunks) and the top bit on her side would still grow. That might be just enough for them to provide living fence posts for us both. By Jove, I think you've got it!
Except it will take quite a few years, I'm guessing more than five years, for the ivy to grow to a decent size to hide the now brown expanse of bare trunks. Could you cope with that? Remember the true saying about ivy:
first year it sleeps
second year it creeps,
third year it leaps
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
How about a compromise? You take out half the hedge, or 12ft of it (2 fence panels), completely and put a fence up. That would still leave enough as cover for birds and solve half your problem. I really think staring at brown trunks for 5+ years would drive you barmy.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
We ran out of money at the end of last year when OH was out of work for a bit, but this autumn we're hoping to remove a 12ft section and replace with a fence. If we can afford it we'll use 6'x6' chestnut hurdles to match shorter ones elsewhere in the garden (and filter some of the howling winds that we get here!) If we can't afford that at the time it will be fence panels and trellis to grow evergreen climbers. Then we'll do a bit more in successive years until it's all gone. The last little section is the one I'm dreading doing the most, as it's full of ivy and I know wrens nest in there and have done ever since I moved here 9 years ago. We hacked the leylandii back to mostly dead wood at the end of last year to remove / reduce the need to trim it this year and you were right Dove - it's driving me nuts already!
I cut my leylandii hedge back only once a year at the back end. Like you I have a border in front of it but by that time, most of the smaller things are past and settled down for winter. A big of squashing doesn't do them any harm. And because the leaves have dropped on the shrubs it's easier to pick up the cuttings.
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
Nor me Steve. I've had three gardens in my lifetime with Leylandii,and every time have had to have them demolished.Much prefer a selection of popular flowering shrubs. The Leylandii are a nuisance. Sorry,Thankthecat!😁
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
Posts
Steve
If you don't want to take it out - and I can understand that - you don't have many choices left.
However, you could bite the bullet, remove it and replace with a basic fence (posts and chicken wire to form a barrier to keep dogs in) and a hedge which can be kept tighter - like beech or hornbeam, or you could hack back to the trunks and attach chicken wire and grow ivy on it like a hedge. That will give you the green background to the border. You won't kill the lleylandii doing that either. Easier to keep trimmed tight and to the height you want, and the trunks will be even more robust then fence posts. I'd agree that trying to camouflage dead trunks is never great, but that would be better as you'd have no 'brown' period through the year. There's a house near me which has had an ivy fence for over twenty years. I know people will disagree with me about it, and complain about fences getting overloaded with ivy etc, but if it's correctly maintained on a sound structure it lasts for a very long time. It's only an issue if the fence/support is dodgy to start with.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I do like the sound of any ivy fence Fairy! I wasn't sure if the trunks would die or not, but I guess technically the neighbour's side is still alive (albeit smothered by a fence - I think it has been cut back quite hard behind it, to allow the fence to be attached to the trunks) and the top bit on her side would still grow. That might be just enough for them to provide living fence posts for us both. By Jove, I think you've got it!
Except it will take quite a few years, I'm guessing more than five years, for the ivy to grow to a decent size to hide the now brown expanse of bare trunks. Could you cope with that? Remember the true saying about ivy:
first year it sleeps
second year it creeps,
third year it leaps
I think I might combine with a Montana, and find some evergreen honeysuckle to go with it.
How about a compromise? You take out half the hedge, or 12ft of it (2 fence panels), completely and put a fence up. That would still leave enough as cover for birds and solve half your problem. I really think staring at brown trunks for 5+ years would drive you barmy.