A Huge Problem With Screening Plants

forest-silhouette

When does a good screening plant become an unwelcome screening plant?

For one of our recent customers it was when they had grown so tall that they blocked all the sunlight to her greenhouse, caused surrounding plants and shrubs to suffer, and became impossible to maintain without hiring professionals.

A line of leyland cypress trees
A line of leyland cypress trees.

There are two qualities that make the Leyland cypress, aka leylandii, an excellent screening plant:

  • Its notoriously fast growth rate which means you get a tall hedge very quickly and economically.
  • Its thick dense foliage that provides plenty of privacy.

These are the same two qualities that can also lead to problems. Huge problems.

  • Leylandii can grow up to 3ft (90cm) a year. This means that within a decade you could have 30ft (9m) of tree to contend with, the equivalent of a three story house!
  • The same thick dense foliage that provides plenty of privacy is also practically impenetrable to sunlight.

Our customer had a troublesome line of 8 leylandii trees in her garden that had grown to 50-60ft (15-18m) tall!

She wanted the sunlight back in her garden, particularly on her greenhouse.

This wasn’t a simple felling job though as just below the trees were decorative water features, delicate garden ornaments, and many shrubs that had been carefully grown over years.

We had to avoid any damage to this!

We weren’t worried though. Using the most up-to-date techniques and rigging we were able to carefully bring down the tree line piece by piece.

After the brash wood and timber had been removed we ground out the stumps. Just a fertile mulch was the only sign of the 8 giants that used to be there before.

8 problems removed, 1 introduced…

A picture showing the garden after the leylandii trees had been removed.
The removal of the leylandii trees had opened up a direct sight line into this garden

The problem now was that the missing trees left a direct sight line into our customer’s garden. She had the sunlight back but had lost the privacy given to her by the leylandii.

Before starting the removal we had anticipated this and talked some options through with the customer.

Together we chose to plant up a new laurel hedge which would provide the required privacy but at a much more manageable height.

We planted a straight line of 7ft shrubs, each 2ft apart.

When planting semi-mature plants you need the root plate to form properly. This requires keeping the plants stable and a great way to do this for a hedge is to use a series of stakes and taught wire along the planting line. The stems of the laurel plants were then attached to the wire with a rubber clip to avoid bark damage.

Privacy into the customer’s garden was preserved thanks to the instant screen provided by the new hedge. The height and slower growth-rate means the hedge will be easily controllable in the future compared to the old leylandii trees.

All problems solved!

Newly planted 7ft laurel hedge
The freshly planted 7ft laurel hedge. The gaps will fill in quickly.

Our customer had gone from a huge light-blocking tree line, which required annual maintenance by professionals, to a new self-maintainable cost-free, hedge.

She now gets the light back into her greenhouse to grow the plants she loves, with the added benefit of saving money every year as she can maintain the new hedge herself.

If you also have unmanageable trees or hedges in your garden or on your property then contact us today as we would love to be able to help you too.

Garden at RHS Hyde Hall

Sitting outside in the sunshine is one of the many pleasures of summer. Plants need the sun’s light as much as we do. Its nourishing sunbeams providing the energy needed for your garden to flourish and grow.

Unfortunately you can’t change the orientation of your house in order to achieve maximum light exposure for your garden. The truth is, a north-facing garden will always be a north-facing garden.

Not all is lost! There are some things you can do that will help you increase the amount of light your garden gets.

Paint the walls white

White Shed

Take a look at your garden. Do you have an old wall? Or any timber structures like sheds, pergolas, or rose arches?

A tidy tip is to paint them white or cream!

This easy transformation is particularly effective on south-facing surfaces.

The white surfaces will reflect and diffuse light in many different directions. This will be a benefit to nearby plants and will immediately brighten up your garden.

Choose your hard landscaping materials carefully

The colour of your paving is something to think about if you are going to lay down a path or patio. Use a warm, pale honey-colour. Avoid dark grey or khaki, or slate chipping. Darker colours do not reflect as much light and in a dark garden they can look quite depressing, especially when wet.

Paving

Highlight with plants

A shade garden can be brightened with the use of white flowers and variegated foliage. This will only create the illusion of light but as dusk falls white begins to stand out.

White Flowers
White Flowers
Variegated Foliage
Variegated Foliage

Mirrors

Mirrors are a popular way to create the illusion of space in a garden but they will also reflect light and heat from the sun. Mounting a mirror in the brightest section of your garden and directing it towards the darkest area is a great way to improve the light your garden gets.

Do not use a magnifying mirror, or direct multiple mirrors to the same spot, as you may accidentally set fire to the neighbours fence!

Decorative Garden Mirror
A decorative garden mirror ball.

Use nature’s mirror: water reflections

A water feature like a pond or fountain can be a great way to spread light around your garden. Water ebbs, flows, and ripples, reflecting light in ever-changing ways. A well-thought-out water feature can be a fantastic addition to your garden, even the focal point.

Light reflecting off of a large pond
Adding a pond to your garden can be a great way to spread light.
Doesn’t need to be this big though!

Install a glass garden sculpture

Why not reflect light around your garden by installing a glass garden sculpture? Incorporate coloured glass and you will add some year-round colour to your garden too,

Before investing in a glass garden sculpture make sure you consider the possibility of overhead limbs falling in bad weather and it. Remove dead, damaged, and diseased branches from your trees to minimise the chances of this happening.

Crown thinning and canopy reduction

Crown Thinning: Before
Crown Thinning: Before
Crown Thinning: After
Crown Thinning: After

That big tree blocking all the sun into your garden? You don’t have to cut it down.

Try thinning the crown instead. It’s the most common way of altering the canopy and involves selective pruning, concentrating on dead or congested shoots, whilst maintaining the overall shape and size of the tree. Up to 30% of the branches can be removed from the canopy which will let more light into your garden.

For the inexperienced it can be easy to spoil the appearance of a tree so if you decide to take this task upon yourself make sure to step back and check your work regularly before removing further branches.

With more mature trees, where you would need to be working up a ladder to remove branches thicker than your wrist, it would be best to call in a professional tree surgeon.

Sawing a branch off of a tree.

A professional tree surgeon can also reduce the overall size of the canopy, ideal if your tree has grown too big and is now blocking out the sun.

Before carrying out any DIY tree work make sure you know if the tree has a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) or not. Your local council will have a tree officer who can advise you on the TPO status.

Don’t want to do any of the above?

If none of this is possible then all is not lost!

There are plenty of attractive plants which thrive in the shade. The Royal Horticultural Society website will tell you which plants can grow away from sunshine.

Come the hot summer, your shade will be the envy of your neighbours across the road!

If you need help with your trees or hedges, contact Climbers Way Tree Care

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