Monday 7 July 2008

Pro Leylandio

Hats off to these plucky little chaps, who, aided by 'climate change' (yeah of course), are leading the fight against the Leylandii menace. There is something uniquely depressing about a Leylandii hedge - the nearest thing in nature to darkness visible - but as a tree, in isolation or a small group well away from any house, it's perfectly fine. I have one at the bottom of my garden (in fact in next door's garden) and quite like it, not least because it provides good dense cover for the birds, and a fine high perch. As it's been dying back from the top for several years - whether from aphid attack or what, I don't know - the crown is now fully exposed to my bird-alert eye and eBay binoculars (a recent purchase - under £20 and all a man could ask of a pair of bins). If only those bloody magpies would stop chasing the other birds away...

8 comments:

  1. Nige, you've just been struck off Oddies Christmas list.

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  2. And I have a quite irrational love of the Leylandii. They seem to be taking fast growing revenge for all the trees we've chopped down.

    And I have it from Oddie that you're still on his list, Nige. He didn't specify which list but he says that you're still on it.

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  3. Relieved to hear it, Dick. He can be so touchy - well I don't have to tell you...

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  4. One for sorrow, two for joy....

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  5. One for sorrow, two for more sorrow, three for where's that gun?...

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  6. Four for I've got it here, Nige. Just give Judy chance to beat a few more of them from the hedges before you fire.

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  7. The list, its the one with Kate Humble on top, oops I mean the one with Kate Humble, on top, no that wouldn't work, she'd never find his spotting scope, its camouflaged.

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  8. We have one and it does what it's supposed to do -- shields my husband's hand-built cedar office building from the street. We live in a historic district with ridiculous rules -- nothing that isn't Victorian can be visible from the street.

    The sucker has indeed grown many feet in a few years.

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