Does my leylandii look big in this?

[hotrod]

Can't be doing his founds much good .

Roald Dahl would have loved it: a monstrous eruption of greenery, ballooning skyward from a small suburban front garden; unstoppable, as if fed by some carelessly discarded bottle of magic potion. It is indeed a thing to behold: the hedge, if one dare call it such, at number 152 Churchway, in the Weston Mill district of Plymouth.

A mushroom cloud of leylandii expanding not just vertically but horizontally, threatening to absorb everything - garden walls, houses, south-west England perhaps - in its path.

And somewhere in there, somewhere in its dark recesses, lives its creator, David Alvand, a man who, to put it mildly, likes his privacy.

Mr Alvand planted 16 leyland cypress trees (cupressocyparis leylandii) when he moved in some 20 years ago, and boy!, haven’t they done well? Thirty-five feet tall now.

Roger Coath may beg to differ. He lives next door in the rain shadow created by the trees, and cannot grow a decent lawn for lack of light.

The seasons come and the seasons go, but for Mr Coath there is only green. This is one of those British Leylandii stories, a tale of cold war between neighbours; a battle of wills that has already resulted in one court hearing.

“You certainly can’t see the house through the trees,” says Roger Palfrey, who lives opposite. “Roger doesn’t like heights and the gutters are full of needles, and he can’t grow any grass. The rootage system underneath must be phenomenal; it can’t be doing the infrastructure underneath the roads any good.”

Mr Palfrey is friends with Mr Coath. Mr Alvand doesn’t appear to be in the market for friends.

Some of his neighbours have complained about the hedge to Plymouth City Council, which is hoping to resolve the dispute through negotiation. Mr Alvand, though, has a reputation for standing his ground. This is the second time he has faced a formal complaint over the use of his land.

In 2003, he lost a legal battle against a nine-foot high fence built around his property, dubbed the Berlin Wall, resulting in a £700 fine and costs. According to Mr Alvand, there is “no story to tell”. But there is: of the British fascination with turf wars.

Courtesy of the daily telegraph - full story here:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/7987762/Why-Britons-love-a-turf-war.html.

 

[gregers]

i do think those 2 tress in the distance are crying out for a pollarding.

 

[^woody^]

Is it really a hedge or just trees close together?

If that was an oak tree with the same branch spread and shading, then everyone would be saying how nice it is and would be up in arms at the thought of cutting it down ..... and the same planners would be slapping a TPO on it