In article , Paul Kelly
writes

"David" wrote in message
.. .
In article , bnd777
writes
Sadly theres no basis in law for suing for loss of light, loss of amenity
or
loss of house value

I read this as being a precedent just waiting to be set, I would have
thought loss of house value would have been a fairly simple one to
establish if the Leylandii are the sole reason.


Loss of house value would indeed be a very easy thing to establish - but
that alone is not actionable in court.

If what I am doing on my property is legal (both statute and common law) and
within planning regs, there is nowt you can do about it no matter what
effect it has on your house value.

While keen and responsible hobby gardeners might well keep a Leylandii hedge
under control it is, in my opinion, irresponsible to advise someone who
needs to ask for basic advice on hedging plants in a forum such as this to
plant Leylandii.

That is only your opinion though.
--
David

good discussion but...Apart from Yew, and no one has said why its good, what are the alternatives. I, like the orginal thread stater need a fast growing inexpensive hedge.

Cheers

gasdoctor wrote:
good discussion but...Apart from Yew, and no one has said why its
good, what are the alternatives. I, like the orginal thread stater
need a fast growing inexpensive hedge.

Consider thuya plicata, perhaps. More expensive than Leyland, but
much better-looking.

Yew is good because it's native, and because it forms a dense and
easily manageable barrier; not as slow-growing as you may think,
either, but certainly not as fast as others. You can't use it near
livestock, though. Have a look at Buckingham Nurseries' collection of
hedging plants.

Mike.

[quote=bnd777]But you maintain your leylandi at 6 ft and no doubt keep it clean and tidy
underneath

The ones that wreck my garden are 12ft high ,,,,,,,half dead to 6 ft up and
a 1 ft deep mess of dried shards underneath to keep blowing through
Add on the entire centres of the trees are full of cuttings

I have inherited a garden with a long, deep border, sloping towards the lawn which features a variety of cypress trees up to 20 ft tall (I estimate) - I haven't established the exact varieties. I reckon they were probably planted 12 years or so ago. I do not border a neighbour on that side but an small, unsightly unworked quarry that needs to be screened . The border is NW of the rest of my garden so light is not a problem. The garden is very exposed to winds.

I have 2 questions:
1. I've lost a couple of hefty trunks (most of the trees have more than one) in high winds in the last couple of years - have I just been unfortunate? Or should the trees be 'topped' to avoid this, which may spoil their shape?

2. I have mixed success in establishing other plants in the border. Some skimmias has been successful and a lavatera and there are euonymus and philadelphus and some periwinkle(though much of the periwinkle failed to regenerate after serious weeding) which was present already. We garden on sandy soil and that border is often dry. I want to know if it is worth spending the time and money on soil improvement/irrigation to grow a wider variety of plants in front of the cypresses or must I just stick to drought tolerant plants?

Thanks
David

Hi,

I moved to a new house last year and had similar privacy hedge needs - I was also considering Leylandii, and was given a lot of friendly advice by speaking to the guys at Laurel and Leylandii Hedging for Sale ? Evergreen Hedging Plants | Hedgesonline.com - they talked me through the pros and cons of different hedges, and had advice on growing speeds, distance between plants etc and lots of other stuff that was new to me. I'd recommend phoning them (their number is on the website) - think I spoke to 'Bob'. Hope this helps.