Leylandii hedge help needed

I'd be grateful for advice on a problem I have with my leylandii hedge. It was absolulte massive - house height - for years and I decided that as new neighbours had moved in to the house next door it woudl be the neighbourly thing to do to have it reduced to a legal height. It looked neat and tidy when it was done - i hated it coz I really liked my own bit of forest - but it was at least respectable once more. Unfortunately my neighbours took this as a cue to go bonkers with an axe and despite the fact that the hedge was on my property and now a proper height, they spent an evening whacking at the base of the hedge and completely ruined the neat appearance. In place of my nice thick barrier safeguarding me from the sight of the mess that is their garden, neatly squared at the top, i now have a hedge that has huge gaps in i t and which no longer has a neat upper edge. It looks a complete mess.

It cost me a fortune to have it reduced in height and I can't afford to have the gardener back to try and neaten it up any time soon. I'm worried that the hedge may not recover from their heavy handed efforts. I wondered if I could plant something in the gaps - I wondered about laurel or something.

I don't want to rip out the hedge as it used to be a real hive of bird activity and I would much rather have a green barrier than a boring old fence.

Any suggestions gratefully recevied.

 

My neighbour has just cut down his Leylandii hedge, kindly, as the roots had damaged my drains and house foundations.

I grew Hebe's from cuttings for him to replace the hedge last year which we underplanted to get them going. They are now about 2 to 3ft high.

 

if the hedge was house height and you had had it reduced to legal height (2m high), it may die completely as it has been reduced too much too soon

it may not show now, but wait till next year and see what happens

I am not 100% certain, but that is what I have read on other forums as regards pruning Leylandii

the other problem is that you speak of costs .... the Leylandii grows very fast ... so if it has been reduced in height to 2m, it will not be long and it will be 3-4m again (assuming that it has not been damaged by the severe pruning), so if you intend to stay legal, you may need to prune the top more than once a year ...

and it is obvious from your post that the new neighbours are concerned about the hedge, so they may insist that you keep it at legal height, and if they complain to the council, you may be forced to comply with the law

but saying that, the neighbours had no right in hacking the hedge without your consent as the hedge is in your property

 

Thanks to everyone for your advice. I did wonder myself whether the hedge would actually survive such a severe cut but couldn't see any alternative. I really liked the big trees myself though and it was certainly much better than what is left there now. I had to employ a special gardener to tackle the hedge this time as it was so big my regular help felt it was beyond him - it was a massive job - but he thinks he can keep it reasonable for me now it's much smaller. I'm quite happy to keep it legal but I have no intention of looking at the building site next door. It's really unsightly.

I don't think they were actually that bothered by the hedge next door. There were a couple of overhanging bits which I would have been happy for them to remove - we couldn't get at them - but they have vandalised the entire length of the hedge and where I had a nice thick barrier to disguise the horror that is the mess of their garden, now I have great holes and gaps. I will try and get some pix posted so you can see.