Is this Leylandii?

I would talk to a tree surgeon about the practicality and visual effects of thinning before deciding. If you decide to leave the Leylandii and plant in front of them whatever you plant will need frequent watering for the first year or so. Some form of irrigation, either a leaky hose or a drip system would reduce the labour, but I think the Leylandii would take up most of it.

 

Forgive me please, but I can't help promoting that Gardeners Corner really is. The friendly gardening forum. At times we might not see eye to eye but there is no nastiness etc. So perhaps adopting a certain manor of address. Might I respectfully refer to my honourable friend's point. Sounds psh.....don't it??? go on have a laugh.
Ur' hum. cough cough. I find my self at perhaps migh be a cross roads. Wowee I do like that tree it offers so many positives yet, at the same time loads of negatives. My friend has such a great garden, much like a park. Here I am in the center of London, typical council house dweller, tiny garden yet I have this thing, wanting to grow and grow. So where, when and how might I make the best of my situation. Zimbles. ( that confounded meercat) Yes, siples. When planning or consiering changes to our gardens, we really need to, go back to school. Yes in so and so's catalogue that looks good, but hey, the height is perhaps no problem but the spread. Hells Bells that will cover my neighbours gardens left and right. So friends. Time has come when perhaps we need to search the books etc.

 

Thankfully I noticed the way the sun travels, really only our garden becomes shaded. The neighbour to the side is a council house and fully paved, so at least for now, their garden isn’t being impacted soil-wise.

I had a dig and the soil isn’t actually that difficult to work with, but it is very dry. I’m thinking to trim the rest of the bases so it at least looks uniform, as right now it looks even worse being only partially done. It does get dappled sunlight for part of the day, in the portion that has had the lower branches trimmed.

I’ve read that some people have had luck growing vinca minor and helleborus under Leylandii. I’d be willing to try a few plants with some watering to get them established.

 

I wish you the best of luck with the Vinca please don't attempt Hellebore. They are such lovely plants (I have many) and they would hate the area where you are intending to plant themHellebore/RHS Gardening Link will give you advice on Hellebore.
. As I mentioned before I have loads and loads of Vinca both the ordinary and variegated. It's not a favourite of mine by a long way but does a job in certain parts of my garden.
Below is a photo of part of my garden which has 2 quite large golden conifers in it and the hellish Leylandii hedge either side of them (you can't see the hedge very well as tried not to get that in the photo on purpose. In the left hand bed there is VInca growing towards the back used as weed suppressant, however the Vinca more or less stops growing about 3 ft from the hedge as it is just too dry. The bed to the right has a path separating the hellish hedge from the herbaceous border and the border is at a higher level so not affected moisture wise by the hedge. The path was constructed for the very reason that virtually nothing will grow close to a Leylandii hedge. i live in Scotland which isn't well known for being the driest part of the world but even here the moisture next to the hedge is not sufficient for anything to really grow. I did plant some daffodils in the bare area infront of the hedge to the left. They come up every year but most come up blind. Just a thought but if you are wanting to give it a go to plant something on the bare patch I would try Ivy. I would reckon it would have a better chance than Vinca. Many people throw their arms up in horror at Ivy. I think it is a great plant in the right location. Some of the variegated ones are really pretty and will grow where many other things won't. In you location it will never become rampant and out of control and won't mind the shade at all. Good luck.

 

A couple more points re conifers.

Quote..... "The neighbour to the side is a council house and fully paved, so at least for now, their garden isn’t being impacted soil-wise. "
Wrong.....Yes it is

1. They are large thirst trees. The suck every bit of moisture from the surrounding ground...including under paving, sheds , garages and houses. In places this can cause subsidence to nearby buildings......in this instance we do not know if this might be a problem.

2. In our first garden we had a small boggy, wet wood full of young sapling Alders..
Duh! We were young, inexperienced...we did not realise that trees grew...fast...very fast.
So instead of simply thinning them out when they were small we just left them.
Big mistake.

Trees/Conifers continue to GROW
These conifers will just grow taller and the trunks ever larger.
The problem will not go away.

Hellebores and Vinca even if you succeed in getting them to grow will not hid those bare,ugly trunks.

But hey as Mike so rightly says "Might I respectfully refer to my honourable friend's point.".

No matter what any of us older experienced gardeners say YellowLab will do exactly as they please.

 

I think that’s a bit harsh and uncalled for...I’m here to learn, get advice, and also figure things out by trying different things. You’re acting like I’m flippantly ignoring advice when that isn’t true. This situation happens to be causing me quite a bit of stress, and I’m trying to remedy it in the best way I can, with my available resources. Currently I can’t rip them out, because I can’t afford it at present. When we bought this house, we were first time home owners, and I had never even heard of Leylandii before (I’m not from the UK originally). I didn’t know this was a problem until very recently. Behind the Leylandii are a row of terraced council housing and without them, there would be zero privacy as the upper floors look directly down into our garden, so even with a fence we would still be severely overlooked. However I do understand these will just keep getting bigger, hence my original question regarding topping them, but as I have indeed listened to the advice given, I now understand they will just use the energy they would have used to grow taller, to instead get wider. This would create other problems. So in short, please don’t make assumptions about me and put me down like that, it really isn’t appreciated.

 

Could I have an answer to my original question - is this definitely Leylandii? I like to know what’s growing in my garden. Thank you!

 

No problem, it just sounded like the topic was about to be shut down. Wasn’t meaning to sound impatient.

 

Thank you, that helps a lot. Once they are topped, does that stop the vertical growth, other than perhaps the side branches growing up a bit? Or will the top still need to be regularly pruned back, along with the sides?

It looks like we’ll probably have to wait until after August to avoid the nesting season, so at least that will give us some time to save towards it.