When we moved here we inherited a huge leylandi hedge, which runs the entire length of one side of the garden. We've had the same guy come to tidy it every year - can't remember what he's charged in the past, but it's always been reasonable, and he's done other things like putting up a temporary fence by the river when Pepe was a puppy, and charged very little. He came yesterday to do the hedge - it was massive, like something out of Sleeping Beauty. Anyway, he said that he's not allowed to take the trimmed off branches (and there were a LOT) to the tip any more, and he has to hire a skip. So it's cost us £198 to give our hedge a haircut!
Do you have to have it done every year, and did you know before he turned up that you would have to pay for a skip?
If it only affected us, I'd be quite happy for it to keep growing as much as it liked! But left untrimmed it would be a bit of an eyesore for our neighbours on that side, so that's why we have it done every year (when there's no danger of any birds nesting in it.) My husband arranged for it to be done, and is rather deaf, so whether he was told about the skip or not I don't know. I always try and stop him answering the phone as I worry about him mishearing and arranging goodness knows what. Only last week he told me a friend of our was coming over for the day, so I got up early and tidied up (something I do as seldom as possible) and sat there and waited. And waited. In the end, it turned out our friend had said he'd come over and see us 'one Saturday'.
Trouble is, there was an awful lot! They had a two trailer loads of it. We used to have a green bin for garden waste, which was collected fortnightly. Then the council stopped it, and it is only available if you pay for the service. We didn't bother, because we compost everything. But I'm wondering if it might be cheaper next year to pay for the green bin to be collected, though goodness knows how long it would take to get through all the trimmings. I wonder if it would burn easily? Perhaps we could get something to burn it in. Ideally, I'd like to have it completely removed and replaced with a nice well behaved hedge, or a wall. We're lucky enough to have a wall on the other side of the garden.
I hadn't thought of that! I'll forget that idea then - we'd never have a long enough dry spell to dry it all out. There's been Dutch Elm disease and Ash dieback - I wish something would blight the leylandi!
How to kill of a leylandii hedge The best way is to drill a hole in the trunk and inject concentrated glyphosate weedkiller. Drill and bore a hole or two as deep into the base as you can get. Fill with: copper wire
It can be burned fairly green. Seasoned wood is so you have little smoke, burns slower and coals last longer. As long as you have a place to burn it, I would go that way, just going to be a small plume of white smoke. (Actually told it smells quite good when burn.)
That sounds OK - perhaps that will be our best option. Many thanks. Now that the Council have stopped the free collection of garden waste, I think there will be a lot more people having bonfires.
