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Q. I have a 30 year Lleylandii hedge. I have kept its height to about 3 metres, but it seems to be getting wider each year. I have now decided, enough is enough. Can I cut the branches back to the trunks, and use these trunks for supports for clematis, climbing roses etc, or would the Lleylandii trunks sprout again? A. It's unlikely that they would sprout again. If they did so, they would do it slowly and weakly and would certainly give up totally if snipped off a second time. If there are any straightish branches of any length that you can salvage when you cut them back, they make good cross-members nailed to the vertical trunks and present a suitably rustic image. Q. I am planning to dig up a very large hedge in my mum's garden and would really appreciate some advice on the best way to tackle it. It is a well established hedge which will be replaced by a fence, so I need to make sure I do the job properly. What is the easiest way to do this, without causing myself an injury? Many thanks for your help. A. There is no magical easy way, just hard work and sweat - swearing at appropriate times helps too. You may need to ensure you remove the stumps to prevent re-growth, which can be manually with more digging and grunting or chemically once the stumps have been leveled almost to the ground, this takes time though. The easiest way? - pay someone else to do it. A. The easiest way is from seed, the plants should be big enough when they're about 2 years old assuming they've been grown in an outdoor seedbed in at least partially sunny conditions. Q. We want to plant a hedge on our eastern boundary, 100ft long under oak trees both for privacy and to absorb road noise. We prefer a fast growing tree. The hedge would be bounded by a stone wall with an expanse of land on the other side so would get some s.w. wind. Please advise on a shade loving hedge - we have facilities to water. Your advice would be appreciated as we have put off this project for some time now as we have been undecided what to plant. A. Please advise on a shade loving hedge - doesn't really exist, shade tolerant is about as good as it gets. You could use privet or laurel, (laurel by preference) these would be reasonably quick growing, but the only that really grow fast in shade are things that are trying to leave the shade and reach the sun. Box would be good but very slow growing. Q. We have an 30' long, 8' high privet hedge that was being invaded by Buckthorn. At first we let the Buckthorn "stay" as it was very thick and provided a good screen from the neighbors. But this year the Buckthorn overtook more of the privet, leading us to cut and remove all of the Buckthorn. This has left us with a hedge with some serious gaps in it. What suggestions do you have to make the hedge come back at its fullest so that it can return to 100% privet. Also, I just planted 25 cheyenne privet plants 2.5' apart to make a nice hedge on my lot line. They are now about 3-4' high after being in the ground about 2 months. When is the best time to prune, and how much do we cut? We ideally want a 6' high square-topped hedge. A. Fortunately privet responds well to renovation. It seems the wrong thing to do, but you can stimulate it into growth by trimming lightly in the areas that you want to re-grow. Also give it a mulch if you have something available in large quantities and a slow release fertiliser such as blood, fish and bone meal. Also, watch out for re-growth of the buckthorn. As for your new privet plants, I wouldn't touch them until they're growing strongly in the spring, then trim lightly to a neat shape and repeat every couple of months through the summer. Imagine you're growing your hair long but want it to always look well trimmed and groomed too! A. Yes you should remove the ivy as it will choke the bottom of the hedge and grow up and compete with the privet if left. If there's any small twigs at the bottom, trim by them by about 1/3rd next spring which will stimulate them into growth. Privet is very good at growing again from brown wood, exposing it to light will help get it going - so remove the ivy. Q. I have a problem with some 40ft Leylandii - 12 in all. As they are killing just about everything within 5 m of them how can I best get rid of them? Do I: I have been told these methods - 1 - Cut them down to 1’ under ground, drill a hole in the stump, pour acid in and cover them over allowing them to rot down. Apparently this doesn’t affect the soil around them and is the non disruptive method. 2 - Dig up the roots – but this apparently makes lots of mess cos you have to dig round them. or is there a better way? A. There is no easy way, there is however a chemical that is used in preference to acid. There is a further way and that is to use a stump-grinder, these are not for the faint hearted or inexperienced (i.e. hire someone to do it for you) it's a sort of exposed thick circular saw that grinds away the whole stump to below ground level. That sounds like a massive job overall in fact. Are you going to attempt it yourself? If you haven't any experience in such things I'd strongly recommend getting an experienced tree removal service to quote you for it. There's 4 jobs there really, cutting the trees, removing the felled trees, removing the stumps and tidying the area - it's going to make quite a mess and you'll need some fairly hefty machinery or a lot of big lads and chainsaws to deal with them. Q. I have just purchased a new house and have 3 Lleylandii at about 7ft currently. I am keen that they grow (!) and wondered if they needed any feed or will water suffice in these relatively dry conditions? Also do you know anything about wild garlic. Some friends came around at the weekend at it seems our garden is infested with it. To my untrained and inexperienced eye it looks very pretty but they tell me it's dreadful stuff for the garden! Help! A. Lleylandii - I wouldn't start watering them, you'll end up making a rod for your own back, if they've got to 7 feet, they should be ok. Feeding, how in some blood, fish and bone meal or Gromore around the roots any time now. Once they're growing well in April, give them a dose of high nitrogen soluble fertiliser. Wild garlic - never come across it specifically, all areas have their own particular weeds/wild plants that proliferate in local conditions. The only way I can think it's "dreadful stuff" would be in the same way as any other weed by taking over if not kept in check. If you let it, it will overpower many of your ornamental introductions. Should you keep it? Depends on how much you like it and how it fits into the scheme of things in your garden. If the house is new to you and the garden has been neglected, then you should be able to keep it in check. Also, some weeds/wild plants look pretty for some of the time and then ugly for much of the rest. Q. I have a yew tree/hedge, it has grown into a tree of about 20ft high, the base has formed a beautifully thick hedge. This is however taking over the drive even though I trim it twice a year. I am frightened to cut deep back into the brown wood to clear it off of the drive and to encourage the hedge again, I would have to cut back about 18inches to 2 ft to do this. Can I do it and expect the hedge to regrow? If so how long will it take to regrow? A. Yew is one of the few conifers that will respond well to hard cutting back by growing again from brown wood. How long to regrow? By next summer I'd expect the brown to be softened by a covering of green shoots again, if not a complete cover. Q. We have our garden enclosed by Laurel Hedges. Gradually one by one they are deteriorating i.e. leaves go yellow and brown and drop off. Why? on the stems one sees a 'Clear Gel' appearing to ease from the wood (the laurels are well established with 30mm diameter trunks). The gel appears along the lengths of the trunks and branches. Can you help please as holes are appearing everywhere and we are losing our lovely garden. A. It sounds very much like your laurels have a bacterial canker that particularly affects plants of the Genus Prunus - like laurels. If there are clearly defined areas of bark that are flattening and sinking inwards near the regions of oozing sap, that just about confirms it. Infected areas should be pruned out and burnt, though this should only be done during the summer months if possible. Spray with a copper based fungicide such as Bordeaux mixture or with copper oxychloride. Ideally this should be done in late summer, then early and mid autumn. If you start now, then leave about 2 weeks between sprayings. Q. I planted 30 Leyland Cypress in a fence row style to be a hedge. I do not want them to grow taller that 5 to 6 ft. My soil is not the best and they have been in the ground 2 years now. Most of them are about 4 ft tall but one end is shooting to the sky. I have different growing heights and want to top off the new growth and keep them with in the 5 to 6 ft height? Can I do that or do I just need to let them grow? I will be doing no side to side trimming just off the top. If I can top these trees can you root these cuttings for more trees? If so how? Can I cut them now (October) or do I wait until spring? A. Just cut them off when they reach 6 ft, if you let them they'll continue to 70ft+! You will need to do some side trimming as they get older or they'll end up huge, best to do little and often. Yes you could use the shoots to take cuttings, 6-12" long pieces in a cold frame ideally with the foliage stripped from most of the length save the top 1/3rd. They'll take better if there's some sand mixed in with the soil. Put them in now and don't touch them again until late spring at the earliest. They need to be kept moist enough to not dry out, but not so wet that they rot. How well they take will depend on your local conditions, if you need them or just want to try, take some every time you trim them, they're free, will be in great abundance (!) and you'll learn by trial and error. You can cut some for cuttings now, but I'd leave any proper trimming until they're in active growth again next year. |
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