Leyandii & Neighbours

[Dibs-h]

Going down the bottom of the garaden yesterday evening - I realised that the school next door (and\or its trademen) had not pruned the Leyandii to their boundary but stepped into my garden a distance or 2'-3' and removed the brances completely at the trunk. Now a person can compeletely step thru the trees, whereas before it would have been impressive.

I'm obviously peeved - a couple of questions, for those green fingered amongst us,

1. will these likely recover? If so are we talking years? They are currently around 8-9m high. I was always planning to cut them down to around 4m. If this was done now would that speed up the growth outwards?

2. Assuming it will take ages for the growth to recover - any sugguestions? I went round yesterday evening and gave the School owner\headteacher a piece of my mind and asked her to let me know what she intended to about the situation, before I sought legal recourse. She did admit that there was a high possibility that the theft was connected to her tradesmen.

Part of me thinks to either fill the gap betwen the trees and the wall - which is over 6-7' high on the school side, i.e. the school playground drops is lower than our garden - with a few rolls of razor\barbed wire and stick a sign up, and screw them.

Or get one of these mesh fences stuck up that appear to be unclimable - you see them around schools, hospitals, etc. and send her either the full bill or half. And if she's unwilling - small claims court, I suspect she wouldn't want the publicity that could come about.

Cheers.

 

[Mike.C]

I would stick the razor wire up and say screw them :roll: , but in the real world it would probably be better to erect the mesh fence and at least send her half the bill. :lol:
The trouble with the razor wire is even if you put signs up I would not be surprised if one of the children got injured (because it is a child) you might be liable Bad I know but the law is an ass. I maybe completely wrong but you should at least check it out with the CAB or a friendly solicitor. Jake may know.

Cheers

Mike

 

[matt]

I'm struggling to picture the scene... I get the bit about cutting the branches off at the trunk rather than pruning to the boundary being wrong etc but cannot quite work out the rest.

If they came in to your garden to prune then access was not sufficiently impeded to now warrant razor wire etc as a cure. Especially as it sounds as though the other side is a school.

In my experience fir trees do not regrow lower branches. Once they're gone they're gone. If there remains other lower branches that were not removed (I assume they only removed the ones that grew over the boundary), then these may develop enough to restore "security".

 

[Steve Jones]

Dibs,

This is sort of my line of work, I cut grass for a living but I do the odd hedge now and again.

As far as I'm aware leylandii and other certain conifers do not regenerate if you cut into the 'brown zone' or as in your case right back to the trunk. You have to be very carefull how far you cut into a leylandii hedge when trimming it back so as not to expose any brown. Under normal circumstances if you reduce the height the width of the hedge will thicken out but only if there's something there to grow, obviously in your case there isn't.

If I were in your position and there's enough room I would plant a row of pyracantha or berberis in the space that's left. I cut a customers hedge yesterday consisiting of these and I'm still pulling thorns out my hands today and I had gloves on while carrying out the work.

HTH

Steve

 

[SBJ]

i would suggest that putting razor wire around a school perimeter would be incredibly irresponsible. I can't see you saying screw you to the child injured on it whilst retrieving thier ball or similar/worse.

I would continue speaking to the head to see if a resolution can be agreed i.e for them to meet the cost of the mesh fence.

 

[mr grimsdale]

Planting leylandii as a boundary is generally regarded as an antisocial act, whatever the legal position.
This is because they grow very fast, very large and so are likely to lead to disputes.
Do you think your neighbours are actually bothered by them in which case why not remove them and plant something more civilised!

 

[ike]

!!!!

 

[Chris Knight]

We have two large Leylandii hedges and these things have been brutalised time and again - they regenerate very quickly.

 

[Steve Jones]

they regenerate very quickly.

leylandii regenerate as long as there's plenty of green left after cutting, they do not regrow from a previously trimmed/cut shoot or brown area, one of the only varieties that will is thuya plicata, which is what a lot of people are planting these days as a substitute because they provide a good screen and are a lot slower growing.

Steve

 

[Mike.C]

i would suggest that putting razor wire around a school perimeter would be incredibly irresponsible. I can't see you saying screw you to the child injured on it whilst retrieving thier ball or similar/worse.

I would continue speaking to the head to see if a resolution can be agreed i.e for them to meet the cost of the mesh fence.

Stuart, I think you will find that Dib's is a bit upset by the whole thing and the razor wire was more of a dry joke then a serious question, and the screw you was directed at the head and certainly not the children. hence the reason I made the reply I did.

Cheers

Mike

 

[jaymar]

I can't believe that anyone would consider razor wire around a school. You obviously haven't any children of your own. You think your trees are more important than injuries to a child. I sit here in disgust.

 

[Mike.C]

I can't believe that anyone would consider razor wire around a school. You obviously haven't any children of your own. You think your trees are more important than injuries to a child. I sit here in disgust.

Come on guys do not let this thread run into a slaging match that Devonwoody mentions elsewhere. If you take time to read Dib's post you will see that it is anger talking, and whether he has children of his own or not, I do not for one minute think that he would put razor wire up

Cheers

Mike

 

[Chris Knight]

A surprising large number of people seem to want stricter moderation of threads that get into choppy waters.

OK - here's an example. I am locking this one.