Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 550 Location: West Wales
Posted: Wed Apr 05, 06 4:40 pm Post subject: Replacement for Leylandii boundary
I decided to go and fell some Leylandii. Those of you who are victims of horticultural mis-selling in the past, will know the scene. They grew quickly, knew not when to stop. I pruned the tops and they rewarded me by dying back at the bottoms. So now the wind whistles through the gaps, (and the neighbours can see me sunbathing) I got three of them horizontal, and cut into manageable chunks, ready to go to the woodshed to burn next year. I shredded the smaller twigs for mulch.
I want to replace them with something which has to like it near the coast, can be very windy, is at an altitude of 500' and be decorative. Any suggestions please. The soil is slaty, well drained.
no ideas apart from thorns ( sloes )however the timber of leylandia is ace for walking sticks , carving , probably bow making and burns well if dryish . poor hedges but ace standard trees .
cornish hedges?
got any stones ?
the thorns
and some prunus
an easy fence and beans for this year , sweet peas and whatever while the hedge grows .
feed the new line lots , leylandii are greedy ( but have guano )the cycle is broken so you need to create a new one
beware rotting roots , they can infect new plantings .
to put the new plants in pots and tend them can be better than to put them straight into the floor .in summer feed the hedge line and the new plantings in late autunm .
ll d i make the soil acidic ,so lime and feed the hedgeline then beans (yum ) then plant the hedge plants you have tended much later in the year . .
A few people have been discussing new hedges recently, mostly with an eye to getting some use out of them as well as having a boundary - here's a couple of threads worth browsing through, and I would especially recommend looking at the Plants for a Future site to see whether there's anything particularly good for your site:
Gorse will be excellent, it seems to thrive near the coast, in the wind.
Gorse and maybe some hawthorn would be good; form a good barrier, good for wildlife. And then plant in anything else you fancy.
How tall do you want this hedge to end up?
Northern_Lad
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 14210 Location: Somewhere
Posted: Thu Apr 06, 06 8:28 am Post subject:
If you want a bit of height (but not 500' Leylandii) then you could try bamboo - lots of different types and colours, and most of them don't give too hoots about the conditions. Evergreen, wind-reducing, and they can be maintained with a hedge-trimmer as long as you don't let them get too thick.
I would be quite tempted by bamboo too but wasn't sure of the conditions. The Rose of Sharon you were considering in the other thread might not give you all the privacy you would like, I'm not sure how tall it really manages to get.
I would be quite tempted by bamboo too but wasn't sure of the conditions. The Rose of Sharon you were considering in the other thread might not give you all the privacy you would like, I'm not sure how tall it really manages to get.
The one in question gets to 5' or 6'. The only doubt might be how well it'll do in a windy spot near the coast.
Northern_Lad
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 14210 Location: Somewhere
Posted: Thu Apr 06, 06 8:40 am Post subject:
cab wrote:
Bugs wrote:
I would be quite tempted by bamboo too but wasn't sure of the conditions. The Rose of Sharon you were considering in the other thread might not give you all the privacy you would like, I'm not sure how tall it really manages to get.
The one in question gets to 5' or 6'. The only doubt might be how well it'll do in a windy spot near the coast.
True, but planted on the inside of gorse (space and money allowing) would protect it when young.
Windymiller
Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 550 Location: West Wales
Posted: Sat Apr 15, 06 9:55 pm Post subject:
The Leylandii are reduced to stumps and trunks now. The biggest is 32" girth! So digging up is a non-starter, but I can dig down a bit to cut them. Should I treat them with anything, or just cover them and leave. I thought about jerusalem artichokes for this year, and perhaps pot some Hypericum forestii, it grows 5' and is ok as we are higher than neighbours garden, and there is a solid wall topped with trellis. I will also look at some of the other suggested plants.
Should I treat them with anything, or just cover them and leave
Mushrooms on Leylandii? Double benefit of helping to break down the stumps and providing a crop in the meantime. Don't know if it is safe or possible though!
)
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