Can someone help with these trees please?

[mnahmnah]

Hi

We are buying a house with these trees at the bottom of the garden.

Can anyone identify them for me please? We are complete garden novices! How much maintenance do they require?

Thanks!

Hi
I don’t think your photo link has worked.

Nope - totally forgot to attach it! 😄

Laylandii, I’m happy to be corrected! Fairly slow growing need shaping every few years

Yes looks like leylandii. Keep on top of pruning & it will be ok, although not much else will grow around it as it will suck up all the nutrients

Slow growing? Ummm no. Rapid, difficult to shape if not kept on top of and generally on most people's get rid of list

As above, will need regular shaping or will grow even taller. You can't cut them too far back as they won't grow green out of brown wood. Good screening though.

I hear ‘leylandi’ and think of neighbour wars! Clearly used to screen the houses behind. Is it a job to pay someone to do? Or manage ourselves? They’re very tall! How often will they need pruning?

Yes Leylandii, although they look fairly well maintained/shaped and acting as an effective privacy screen. They will suck up nutrients but looking at the photo that doesn't look like a big problem - do I spy fake turf 😱. They're pretty big so will need maintenance but a pro once a year should be enough to keep them in check. Not a reason to not buy the house imo!

Looks like they were planted to screen out the flats at the back. As someone up thread said they do take light/moisture/nutrients out of the soil below. They really aren't suitable in small gardens.

I'd replace with different trees. Deciduous would be preferable. You could remove 2, replant with something more suitable (largish, from a specialist tree nursery) and after a few years replace the other two.

The local wildlife will thank you for it. You'll have a much more interesting view from your windows and the plants growing against the fence will be much happier.

Left unpruned they will grow to 100 feet tall. They are really fast growers. Unless you have a head for heights and are handy with power tools you will probably need a tree surgeon or garden maintenance expert with some industrial ladders to come round every 2-3 years.

@PuppyPerson

That is is the only strip of fake grass by the trees. Under the swing. The rest of the garden is real grass. I can live with paying someone once a year to sort them out! I was worried it would be more often.

@AnOldCynic

They are three storey houses, rather than flats luckily. But yes, still good to screen them out and they are doing a good job of that!

As for nutrients, we won’t be planting anything else as the garden will mostly be a football pitch! Any tips on which would be better trees?

Hoping this thread pops up on active again. We have now moved into the house and I have no idea whether they need trimming now or if we are ok waiting until the spring? Any advice welcome please!

Congrats on the new house!

Now's a good time if you want them trimmed - get a couple of quotes-prices round here vary a lot! In spring you'll have to wait until nesting season is over

We just bought a house with the same trees. Branches were resting on the shed and had holed the roof so we got a tree surgeon in straight away. £400 to cut off 4 very large branches and remove a lightning-damaged tree. We are in the SW

Personally I'd get shot now before they get any bigger. Our neighbours have leylandii - and they have to get a professional company in every year to trim them as they are so high, the look ugly where they are cut back into, and the only saving grace is that there's a flock of sparrows that live in them that I'm very fond of.

It causes endless hassle with them and their neighbours.

We've just had a medium sized one removed and taken away. Definitely get lots of quotes and be careful who you choose.. this is a business notorious for cowboys. Worth paying a bit more for a tree surgeon who knows what he's doing. A bodged job of unevenness and brown areas will look terrible.

It might be costly, but I’d call in a couple of specialist tree surgeons for advice and quotes, it’ll be an investment I reckon.

Don’t leave it until spring when the birds start nesting.

If you are in contact with previous owners they might be able to recommend someone who did the pruning in past.

In our previous house my OH tackled a similar row of them, hard work but satisfying. Chopped up the trunks & branches, shredded the greenery and took it all down the local tip in his truck.

At my late parents house we had to get tree surgeons in as they were so massive and yes, we had to wait for one of the trees to be dealt with as initially there was a pigeon nesting in it.

With regards to cowboy tree surgeons, I quite agree.
If they don't have all the correct climbing gear and are taking branches away then they will probably be fly tipping. A proper company will shred on site and chop up the trunks (we kept some).

Thanks everyone. We want to keep them because they block the three storey houses behind.

I won’t be contacting the previous owner. I have no desire to have anything to do with them ever again!

we have had a couple of people round. First said to do it now, £500. The second said to wait until March, £250-300. Who are we meant to believe?! Second guy seemed really genuine and a total tree geek.

I then heard from one of the school mums we are friendly with and I had forgotten her husband now does this after quitting teaching. So we will get him round, someone we know and trust!

The second guy is more in line with RHS advice and advice from reputable on-line resources.

You may know and trust someone not to rip you off, but can you also trust their knowledge?

Go with the tree geek. He will prune them properly and not just hack away with power tools.

We had leylandii in a previous house. They're extremely effective for screening and ok as long as you regularly keep on top of them. We found a good tree surgeon and had him round every year to prune them and keep them in check.