Leylandii hedge.

Our next door neighbour planted the wretched things along our boundary about 45 years ago. He kept it under control whilst living there but successive owners never bothered. This resulted in a whopping wall of greenery which towered over our garden and house. The hedge reached an estimated 40ft in height until, eventually, after several threats, the latest owners had about 20ft taken off. It looks awful but at least we have more light in that part of the garden now.

Shysal, mine looked just like that. We were celebrating when the tree surgeons arrived.
I think next doors leylandii probably belonged to a number of previous houses.

Cutting off the leyandii down to about 6ft made a big difference to our garden .

We actually cut down the overhanging bits of the neighbours leylandii , And then the neighbours took it down further.
I think you can remove the bits which were or are overhanging bits of your garden . If not come and visit me in prison.

Mamacaz - it could be that a neighbour can sue the owner of the tree for something - lack of light, roots spreading into their garden.
We have a rental property, and have had to have trees lopped 3 times for various reasons. Once for overgrown leylandii .Very expensive.

Ethelbags.
I quite like ours too. It was planted by the previous owner, is about 7 foot tall and, because our neighbours are a little way away, it does not cause any problems.
As you say it gives us protection from the wind and privacy from the road.
We have masses of birds that lives in it and now that we have fenced along the bottom few feet we are happy to see the rabbits running about under it. it also keeps the deer out and saves our trees from being nibbled.
The only downside is that it takes a bit of cutting, we have about 200 yards of it. Still the exercise is good for us.

Isn't there a law that makes it possible, with the help of the local council, to force a neighbour to reduce the height of a high hedge if it is a nuisance?
I seem to remember hearing of something like that in recent years.

I had about 10 leylandii in my garden when I bought this place, they were around 20 foot tall. I cut them down drastically and carted them off to the tip. Then just kept cutting them until they were just foot high stumps. I then called in a man with a wood chipper to take care of the stumps, it took me a while but I got rid of them. I then started on the roots which stretched right across the garden and under the patio. Thankfully the builders took over at that point to dig the foundations for my conservatory. It was hard work but not very expensive.

We inadvertently left a row of leylandiis to themselves in the garden of our house in France. Before we realised it they were twice the height of the house and about 12 foot wide at the base, they engulfed some apple trees and were all we could see from one bedroom of the house.

What it cost us to get them removed is something I would rather not think about.

We wanted to remove our Leylandii hedge but our neighbour on the other side of the fence asked us not to. We were also advised by a surveyor that, as we have clay soil, to remove the hedge could cause heave and subsidence, so it stays but has a regular chop.

So sad everyone hates leylandii. I love mine neighbours dont complain but mine are kept to 6 foot. Id love to hear grom other leylandii lovers. Theyre so dark and moody

I'm with Alima, I believe leylanii are the most anti social trees anyone can plant in their garden. A new house was built in the field at the bottom of our garden, the builder planted leylandii around the large garden. We then had fast growing leylandii at the bottom of our garden. It meant all the plants in our border died. From 2pm our garden was shrouded in shade.
We eventually agreed with the neighbour that we'd pay to keep the leylandii down. It's gone from 40ft to 10 ft and we plan to bring it down further this year.

Many of the trunks are now smothered in ivy, which means the ivy grows through the fences and damages them. It also provides a rat run and breeding ground for slugs and snails, who make merry with my hosta's.

Sorry to whinge but I loathe leylandii which causes such stress in suburban gardens.

As per Alima - You should count your blessings if the severe cut ends its growing life.
I don't believe it can be effective though. We've had personal experience.

To be honest paddyann, if it didn’t recover from a severe cut I would think that was a positive. Unless one lives in a remote house I think leylandii are the most anti social things. (Apparently our neighbours nearly came to blows with the people at the bottom of our gardens the other day over the height and spread of their Leylandii. I am glad we missed it).

I have a 15 foot leylandii hedge and I was wondering about cutting it to around 7 feet,I was told it wouldn't recover so decided to just do its annual trim ..or take it away altogether.I might get it taken a few feet down if recovery is possible .
It was planted by my late FIL when he used to do all our garden work and I 'm not fond of it, MIL keeps saying but A planted it ,dont take it away,she might win yet ...lol

Lonicera bi-colour (honeysuckle) is fragrant and fast-growing, makes good coverage and is not yellow!

It will cover itself over to some degree. We have a leylandii hedge, planted by the previous owner, and we have to have it cut back regularly, otherwise we'd been living in permanent darkness! I cannot say I love it but it acts as an excellent windbreak for my otherwise-exposed garden.

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It could recover. We have a hedge that is chopped severely every few years, the last time about two years ago. It now has over a foot of new growth, covering the trunks completely. Our neighbour has a similar hedge that was chopped last November. Part of it is now covered by Philadelphus, the rest is still bare but has ivy starting to grow, which will cover it by the autumn.

It will look better in a year or two. That and you will soon get used to it. But it will probably go wider too.

As there is strong growth below the cuts there is a reasonable chance that enough of this will grow upwards to cover the cut trunks - eventually.
I cut one back myself, and it looks ok again now, a couple of years on.
You can help this along on your side by judicious pruning of new growth, encouraging it to grow upwards rather than outwards.

I know this would mean more work (and expense!) but you might be able to start the climbers off in raised beds, say about 2ft deep, with some good compost. If they got off to a good start, they might be strong enough to force their way through the roots of the dreaded Leylandii.

Some of the side branches will grow up a bit and hide bare stumps, but will need to be kept trimmed to just above stump height. Meanwhile some of the other suggestions should help- ivy covers a lot and would make it look less raw.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have just looked on line for repeat-flowering rambling roses which could be good, and honeysuckle although it will have to be pinkish as I don't do yellow flowers! The difficulty will be planting them because the lawn on my side is a mass of roots from the hedge, right to the surface. I might just manage to weave in some bare rooted plants.

M0nica, that link to the guardian had some nice suggestions, I think I'll write a couple down and try them in my garden!!

Sorry, just noticed that you have already said.

You could plant honeysuckle as well as the clematis, and there some evergreen honeysuckle varieties.

A vigorous rose, such as Kiftsgate or Rambling Rector might be worth a though too. What length is the hedge?