Topping Leylandii

Nice that you were considerate of your neighbours when planning your bonfire. :o)

Pity you don't live near to us - we could have kept warm by burning them in our logburner!

i chopped ia leylandii hedge down this week for one of my customers. we brought the big wood home for our fire in the shed. today we've been prunning the big ash tree at the bottom of our garden to give light to our apple trees. its hard work but very satisfying....

That's a great picture fo you near the bonfire, it almost looks like you're in it!

I like your triumphant gesture! Having just read Andrew's blog, in which he sounds so angry (with reason), you have obviously won your round!

A familiar sight, burning Leylandii, as I've battled with our massive inherited ones over the 2 years we've lived in this garden - and now I've very nearly won. We are also lucky to live in a non-restricting bonfire area, but like you I try to plan a sensible time to burn, and usually offer to burn neighbours' garden stuff which they can't compost. I find that works very well!
I raise a glass to your triumph!
Sad side-effect for me is that I now dislike all conifers - also desperate memories of 1970s gardens, sorry all conifer fans out there... Maybe with therapy I'll change my mind one day.

My Leylandii hedges have a similar look to yours, Poaannua. Recently a neighbour told me about the chap who planted them, they were his pride and joy. Apparently he was constantly in the garden preening them. I believe it was the same chap who emigrated to Australia, leaving the hedges in the tender care of successive tenants. By the time I bought the property the hedges were very tall, impenetratable and reducing the property boundary by a good 6 feet. I began taming them by reducing their height so that I could cut them with my feet firmly in the ground. I have also planted evergreen shrubs just inside them and stripped the hedging of foliage facing the garden. So now I have the beginnings of an attractive, colourful and seasonally changing boundary structure. Once the shrubs are big enough to give privacy I shall remove the remaining hedge, which will make the public footpath much wider too.

Only just caught this blog Po. I just love to see Leylandii going the way that they deserve. I really do dislike them but that hasn't put me off conifers (except larches) out in the forest where they belong. I suppose you could say that I shouldn't have exotics, they don't 'belong' here but I wouldn't have a conifer in my garden. They belong somewhere wilder.

John.

Rereading this has just made me wonder - what are tomorrow's "Leylandii"?!
I notice that there is not so much madly-spreading Euphorbia being planted now as there was a few years back.
Anyone else got any thoughts?
I like Buddleia (not that they are in fashion now) but they are certainly lively aren't they? oo-er. These overachievers of the plant world make me think of triffids, taking over the world!

I suppose we've all had Leylandii at some point, probably due to the fact that you get a hedge quick. It would be nice if we all reverted to traditional heding like beech or holly or even hawthorn but unlike fences they all have to be clipped. I think its wise also to choose a hedge that fits in with your surroundings i.e. if you live in the country have a holly hedge or if you live in a town, a laurel hedge.