Laurel hedging

hello all happy easter!
New to this site so treat me to some of your expertise!
less than charming neighbour has replaced the fence posts of our boundary fence, has disturbed roots of part of my laurel hedging and it has started to die, any reason it will recover or should I just replace it? am very sad about this as I've spent time on it.
Thanks in advance

 

Is it well established?
How high is it?
How long ago was the posts replaced?

 

Laurel is pretty tough, and unless all the roots were damaged it should recover.
you may find that only part of the shrub will die back, whilst the rest may continue to look quite healthy.
I might suggest that you leave it alone for the next 6-8 weeks, apart from cutting the dead or dying branches out to new growth, if any, some times you find that if some of the root system has been damaged that the rest tend to compensate and that only some of the braches die off.
its better to give it a chance, if it all dies back in the next 3 months then I would replace.
not being able to see the plant we can only give you advice on the info. you give..

 

thanks Pete for getting back to me.
its about 5.5 ft high and quite well established
the posts were put in about a month ago but the damage has esclated recently.its quite brown and crumbly on some of the branches.
hope this helps - am typing with a teething baby on my knee!

 

When you say it escalated recently, do you mean there was a problem before the posts went up? That could make a real difference. Sympathise with the teething baby problem, as probably most of us can!!

 

I think rossco has it right, only thing that I would add is that if its become unstable due to the root loss it might be a good idea to cut it down a bit and perhaps stake it if its rocking at the root.

 

thanks fellow gardeners, had another look today and some of it is healthy and the roots are stable but it has only happened when my neighbour from hell decided to recement the posts in and removed the other posts - the damaged piece of hedging is very close to one post.
Sorry for not getting back to you all but baby gives me no peace and have 3 year old as well! garden has suffered!
thanks rossco for your excellent advice!

 

I'm tempted to ask if they also painted it and with what?

Creosote and other tar-oil based wood preservatives will produce fumes that can be very harmfull to some plants.

 

Best thing to do is to spray with water and then mulch the roots, keep spraying leaves till you either win , or you are sure they wont recover, they will take hard pruning so don t worry too much