I'm having a load of cypress trees removed

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

They were here when we bought the house over a decade ago and I've always disliked them but haven't had the will to do anything about them until now. I thought I was going to regain about 1.5m of flowerbed, but because I have an odd shaped boundary I hadn't realised that part of my front garden had two rows of cypress, so I've gained a massive amount of space. It's triangular with about 1.5m as expected at the pointy end but about 4m (possibly 5m, I'm not great at estimating) at the wide end. My front garden looks bloody HUGE, mostly because of so much extra light coming in. I'm not sure what to put in there now.

I think the previous owners probably put them in for privacy but I'm the last house on a cul de sac so there isn't a huge need for an impenetrable hedge.

Google view for your delectation. The red lines are my boundary, the yellow is my next door neighbours boundary with the road and the blue is where I thought my boundary with the road was.

I also really fancy a wedding cake tree, but I'll probably put that in the back garden. clarenbridgegardencentre.ie/online-garden-shop/trees-l-z/wedding-cake-tree-80-100cm/ Obviously my tree style is open and lacy, which is probably why I disliked the very solid conifers so much.

I think the same is true of my preference in other planting, I like things that sprawl and grow into each other, like buddleja and fuchsia. I was chatting with my neighbour yesterday about painting my bit of the fence to match her bit and she was recommending loads of plants but her taste is very different to mine. Her garden is perfect, but she likes self-contained things, she gives everything its own space to shine. It's just a different style. I said I would get advice from my Mum, who is very horticultural.

I'd have a ginkgo an an acer for some fabulous autumn colour.

Acers don't like my garden, or perhaps they just don't like me. I've tried twice and both times they've stuck it out grumpily for a year and then died. My neighbour has a lovely one, so it's obviously possible, just not for me.

I love rowans and that wedding cake tree is lovely. What about a mimosa tree? Or a small magnolia.

Mimosas are really pretty, but we catch the wind here and they are quite fragile. There's a house at the top of the road with a mimosa and it looses a load of branches every time there's a storm. It's also toxic to animals if they eat the seed pods. My dog isn't usually out the front unaccompanied but he'll always make a break for it if someone leaves the side gate open and he'll give almost anything a nibble to see if it's edible.

www.arnemaynard.com

How much light does that area get. Posh kitchen garden with some pleached crab apples or quince trees. Take up less space, privacy, look good and get a crop of something?

There are some gorgeous gardens on that site IdaGoodnight

Agree - the only wildlife benefiting from leylandii would be pigeons who like to nest in them and (believe it or not) stick insects.

My Mum came over yesterday, but it was for dinner and it was already dark when she got here so she didn't really have any opinions about what I should plant. I'm sure she will the next time she comes, or more likely she will come up with better options after I've already planted it up.

She did suggest that hawthorn would be a bad option though, as it would need to be kept trimmed and it would be painful. So I'll run the idea past my gardener before I buy the plants. What else would be a pretty hedge, preferably with flowers and berries?

Lilac tree and some of the lovely companion plants for it - you have quite a choice of them! Here www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/lilac/lilac-companion-plants.htm

Any extra space you could make a lovely scent garden, with rosemary, lavender and other smelly lovelinesses.

If possible please try & think native tree instead of a fancy import - I’m not going to get into big debates about ecology but they do make such a difference. Medlar or quince are lovely & more unusual. Wild Cherry or crabapple or towns are pretty. You could do elder for blossom & berries. Hazel or willow are nice “trees”. Juniper has berries & is evergreen, dogwood is good for winter colour …

lucyfox is lilac a native? I must admit, I had always thought it was, also magnolia.

I'm pretty sure the trees will be rowan, which are native. It's more the hedge that I'm considering. Elder would be a good hedge but it's fast growing so I would need to have it continuously cut back if I want to keep it under 2m. I'm also going to have a few different fuchsias, which I know aren't native but the bees go nuts for the fuchsia that I already have so I know they like them.

Personally, I’d vote against elder. Yes the flowers are lovely, they’re good for wildlife, and you can use both flowers and berries in cooking etc. but not only are they fast growing, birds who eat their berries have very purple, and staining, poop. If you or your neighbours hang washing out, beware!

Oh, my lovely but exacting neighbour would not be happy with purple poo.

Here, I like hawthorn although I do understand your mum's hesitation. We have ours laid every few years to keep it thick at the bottom, and we're not using it as a stock fence either. It does make a really good boundary, with flowers in May and haws in October which the birds love. And here in Cornwall, the wind shapes it very elegantly.

And it's a good nesting fence too. We have so many birds, blue, green and chaff finches, robins, blackbirds, thrushes, wagtails, bull finches, treecreepers, wood peckers, dunnocks, all the variations of tits, as well as wood pigeons, jays, magpies and jackdaws. Even a firecrest one lovely afternoon.

I had a hawthorn hedge at my allotment and after trying to tame it, I'd never plant it again. If I'm going for spiky I'm going for Chaenomeles quince or sea buckthorn.

But yes Cydonia quince, Amelanchier, Acer Griseum [paperbark maple], a good trio of Betula Jaquemondii, some step over apples, a Rice Paper Plant, a Tulip Tree; would be my trees of choice. I've moved to France now and have a small shipment of various fruit trees and kiwiberry and grape vines that have been dispatched today and I cannot wait to get them positioned and in.

Found a goldcrest nest in ours

No, neither of those is native.

What else would be a pretty hedge, preferably with flowers and berries? Privet? Used to love the scent of the one I grew up with.

Privet is very fast growing so I worry that it might get out of control. It'll be a lot of trimming to keep it at 2m when it wants to be 3 or 4m. Scented would be very attractive though.

We have a 'hedge' of roses, not sure exactly what type they are but they grow in a line and are definitely not bushes. We have lots of birds nesting there too. It can get a bit straggly but we only cut it back once a year.

A rose hedge sounds lovely, does it go see-though in winter or does it still provide a bit of privacy? Do you happen to know what variety you have?

I think that if you're already thinking of davidias or liquidambers you probably don't need advice here. Both lovely choices but you'd have to look for the Davidia variety 'Sonoma' if you don't want to wait for 15 years before you see flowers.
If you go down the magnolia route, what about choosing one of the fantastic yellows that are coming into cultivation. 'Daphne' is the best, but 'Canary Bird' is nearly as good: both absolutely exquisite.
Birches are for rural gardens in my view. They are untidy creatures that drop a lot of waste wood. I have six acres of woodland and plant a lot of trees, but I have never planted a cherry. If I did, it would only be 'Tai Haku' but I find them dull and their suckering annoys me.

Not the besst pic of the stand of roses (MN told me they were roses, btw). We hadn't been able to trim it (ill health) that year and then birds were nesting so we couldn't while they were there, so it's not at all a good pic, but you get the idea. It become abbsolutely covered in flowers and then tons of hips which dd uses to make cordial. It is lovely when in flower.