Cutting back Conifers

[Wittyname10]

I've really helpful advice on here with other matters so I am turning to you again for some gardening help!

We have some very established Conifers in our garden. They are about 12 feet high but also very fat, there's about 4 feet of outward growth either side of the trunks.

What I was hoping to do is trim the fat on the inside of the garden right back to the trunk to give us more space to establish some no dig asparagus beds. It will also make it easier to manage the height as at the moment it's difficult to take any height off them in the middle of the hedge.

Anyone able to advise? Will this kill them? I don't want to kill them as they do add an element of privacy.

I have a very crudely drawn Microsoft paint diagram attached in case the above post is gibberish.

Thanks all!

It depends which conifers they are. If they are Leylandii they should be only lightly trimmed as cutting them back too hard kills the stems and you are left with ugly brown foliage instead of ugly green foliage. Can you post a photo?

Thanks squashyhat, I hope that’s uploaded.

I’m not bothered about re-growth, I just don’t want them to completely die off if I were to cut back too hard.

I don’t think you will kill them off but they are very unlikely to regrow if you are cutting into old wood so will look pretty horrendous if you leave the other side as is because you’ll see all the Woody stalks in the centre.

We have taken all the bottom stems off a number of our conifers and trimmed back the higher ones so they are a bit like lollipops/pleached trees and that looks much better - but you obviously lose the privacy.

Leylandii.

They'll take all the goodness out the soil anyway. If you can get them out fully, do

Your neighbours will probably thank you. We have to do battle with them from next door and they block loads of light

This is what they look like chopped at, best thing I ever did was have them removed and replaced with Beech.

Not all cypresses are Leylandii!

You'll end up with a bare brown hedge. Leylandii won't grow back once cut back beyond the green bits. This type of hedge does gradually creep bigger and bigger unless trimming is very frequent. This gives them a finite useful life in a small garden. It may be time to think about a replacement.

Is it your hedge? - this is something important to establish before doing anything that might weaken it.

Thanks DogInATent, yes its our hedge, the other side is a pavement, no neighbours to consider.

So we'd cut it back to the trunk on our side, do you think the pavement side would stay green (obviously going to keep it maintained and not cut beyond the green on the outward facing side)?

My experience of tackling an overgrown Leylandii hedge is that cutting it back like that will leave it looking ugly as sin and you'll realise just how much dead, dusty and tinder-dry material has been accumulating inside the hedge.

If you do it, do it with a plan that the rest of the hedge is coming down in the next 2-4 years and plan a replacement accordingly. Personally, I'd have the lot down in one go. For privacy put up a fence along the path and plant a replacement hedge inside the fence. Go for a replacement hedge that's more acceptable of hard pruning when required. Yew has a reputation for being slow growing, but can grow and fill out to a 6' hedge within 3-4 years and gives good privacy. A native hedging mix gives less privacy unless allowed to grow quite wide, but has the wildlife and foraging benefits - and if you retain and maintain a fence the privacy is less of a concern.

You are now into the nesting season so any drastic hedge-cutting needs to be done appropriately or deferred until Autumn.

A neighbour cut back a conifer (some sort of fir) into old wood and it stayed bare for years. The bare wood is just starting to be overgrown from the side that wasn't cut back so hard but it's taken over a decade.

I think Leylandii makes a very handsome tree, grown as a specimen.

Thanks everyone for your input. Going to do a trial this weekend where we cut it back to wood up to about 6 ft and see how that goes.