landlubber

Flinty, please have you any idea where I can buy the chemicals, and do you think they will hurt the birds and wildlife in my garden?
I have Pheasants and Partridges, Squirrels and hedgehogs and loads of Birds, many from nests in the garden, also Bee's and Dragon flies, lots of Butterflies and Moths.
I REALLY would prefer to forfeit the hedge than my little wild Menagerie.
Having dealt with the problem yourself previously, I value your advice, many thanks, Jan

 

Landlubber, my laurel plants have the same problem and thanks to Flinty for posting the link.

I will, in the first instance, just cut back the effected branches and if I still find more evidence, the will start to source the recommended chemicals.

I always thought that laurel was such a tough plant so was quite surprised to see it looking sickly.

 

Thanks for your advice Marley Farley, on the strength of it I WILL NOT be using any chemicals.
Today I have been very lucky, this morning I had a spotted woodpecker, red black and white, and this afternoon a Green woodpecker, both around the bird table and digging the squirrels winter horde of peanuts, out of the lawn!
Instead, I will spend some time cutting back on the offending branches, will burn the cuttings. I will then feed again with bone meal, water well and mulch the hedging roots,
My worry is, Beechleaf said not to keep cutting back or it will weaken the shrub, but if the mildew on the leaves is not removed it could spread? Anymore bright ideas, without using chemicals? Another problem is that the hedging forms good privacy along with trees on the boundary, if I cut the Laurel right the way down, we will be very exposed to passers by. I will do that if necessary but we are talking about 12 of them altogether. Like you say, this damp, humid weather is not helping at all.
Thanks for everyones input, Jan.

 

Jan

I agree with Marley Farley. A laurel hedge with powdery mildew may look unsightly but it isn't going to die - it's as tough as old boots. Of course, it's not good to have a large reservoir of mildew in the garden and so the non-chemical approach is the best to take. Realistically, you never beat mildew but you can keep it to a low level.

The hedge in my last garden was huge and spraying it just wasn't practical. So I used to keep a close eye on it and prune out the worst affected shoots. Also, I found that a twice yearly trim (early June and late September) of the whole hedge helped keep it tidy and minimised the mildew. Trimming the hedge twice a year was a serious amount of work (I had to shuttle bags and bags of the clippings to the local tip) but it was worth it and I now apply the same regime to the beech hedges I have in my current garden.

In other words, you don't need to cut it down to the ground but regular trimming and "spot treatment" with the secateurs isn't, IMHO, going to weaken an established laurel hedge at all.

It sounds like you have a really interesting mix of wildlife in your garden - I envy you.

 

Ok thanks so much Flinty, we have in the past 18 months really kept trimming this hedge back, because as you say it is a serious task, the garden is not that deep, and on return to the house after being away five years, the Laurel hedge had actually encroached 5 feet onto the lawn. Like you say, we took bags and bags and bags of clippings to the tip, and were enjoying the fact we had finally got it to the right height ect.!!!Sods law!!! We have a mixed border of lots of Laurel, Holly and Rhodedendrons, backed by large trees. Spraying is not really practical here either. I will go along with what you have said, giving it a last clip in September, see what the winter brings. We have had Blackbirds nesting in amongst it, so that also played a part of patiently waiting till nesting was over.
With regards to Wildlife, it is quite rural here and we have like minded neighbours who all encourage as much as we can, to visit. We burn logs in the winter and the woodpile encourages lots of insects etc. We do have a couple of Dead Elm trees that are quite solidly standing, we keep them to encourage the Woodpeckers. Last year about this time we had a Wryneck, on the lawn eating Ants, bold as you like, Just wonderful! Jan

 

Thanks Flinty I will do as you say. We are really very fortunate in the location here, on the boundary of the New National Park and very rural. I have a Wildlife garden, a rubbish lawn, full of clover and daisies! The grandkids play football on it. We have mixed boundary shrubbing, Rhodedendrons, Holly and loads of Laurel, backed up by full grown trees, Rowan, Sycamore, and quite a few Elm trees a couple of which are definitely dead, but stand quite firmly. They are kept for the Woodpeckers. Last year we had a a very rare visitor, about this time of the year, a Wryneck, stripes like a Badger down the back, a beautiful, smaller, Woodpecker. They love Ants apparently, and it spent about 15 mins in the centre of my lawn, wonderful! We burn logs in an open fire, and the woodpile attracts lots of insects etc. which in turn encourages the birds. We also get snakes occasionally, more often slow worms though. We also had two lovely field mice who emptied out a whole bag of bird food peanuts, from a bucket in the greenhouse, we watched them for hours doing a run under the fence to the greenhouse, up the bucket etc. Pure entertainment!
thanks again for all your help, Jan

 

Hi folks thanks for all your help, I posted a reply earlier, lost it, it came up but then just disappeared, I did another in similar vein, and they both came up! Felt an idiot, repeating myself, now I have lost 'em both again!! Anyone any idea what I did wrong or where they went!!!? I am just SO hopeless with Computers, SORRY! Many thanks all, Jan

 

Thanks all, now I know what to do, shall get on with it without chemicals, really grateful, Jan