Laurel hedging;

[Corris]

If I cut it back/down to wood, will it regrow? Or will I have killed it?

Currently it's about 15 feet tall and has a spread of maybe five feet or so - and I want to cut it right down to put fencing in that will keep the dogs in (it also has blackberry/mile a minute/elderberry/yew/hawthorne and the like in it and much of the inside when you cut it back is dead).

Can I cut it right back?

[jacob marley]

It will regrow again it it like squitch you cannot kill it , jacob

[Glutton4...]

It'll probably grow back stronger! We had it at our last house - I used to butcher it regularly to stop it getting straggly - when we left it was lovely and thick. You do have to keep on top of it, twice a year pruning with secateurs, is best. The leaves take ages to rot too, so bear that in mind if you're adding them to your compost bin.

[Snadger]

I've seen them with so much cut off they look like cacti! They STILL grow back!

[Aberdeenplotter]

and they grow back thicker than ever. That is why they make such a good hedge but they do take a lot of maintenance.

[Corris]

not lovely news - none of it! I don't really like Laurel, and I want our hedging at the back to about 6 foot and the one between the house back garden and the chicken's/allotment garden down to about 10 (that ones more like 20!)........ I have a LOT of hedge trimming coming up.

Would I be better waiting until the winter?

[Glutton4...]

You'd be better getting a Chainsaw! Yes, wait until winter - one of my customers has just 'pruned' (read massacred!) some Laurel, and it's really suffering at the moment. I don't doubt it will recover...

[endymion]

It'll grow back, like a weed!

If you do take a chainsaw to it, and then decide to take it to the dump, remember to leave the car windows open because Laurel contains cyanide. It doesn't seem to do much when it's living and attached to the plant, but carrying freshly wilting leaves in the car can make you drowsy, at least that's what happened to me. It might be a good idea to wear safety specs too, because some people are sensitive to the sap.

We've used the timber in our woodburner without any problems.

[snohare]

Corris, I wouldn't wait until winter. You might then have all the problems of cold (reduces your efficiency, raises the risk of accidents), slippery footing, poor visibility (lumps of snow obscuring branches, falling onto you), wet wood (breaks differently to dry wood, deflects the saw) - all while up a platform/ladder, with a chainsaw !
Funnily enough I was doing this exact job just on Saturday, with volunteers at Craigievar Castle. Nobody seemed to have problems with the sap, but two people seemed to be affected by the smoke from the bonfire; streaming eyes, fatigue, wheeziness. This is a high percentage, amongst persons who normally never stop at a lungful of pyrethrin-laced rhododendron smoke. When I googled about laurel poisoning, I found dire stories of fumes coming from the foliage when drying.
Personally, I would try to never let a hedge get above the height at which you can cut from a step ladder - good advice I once received from a jobbing gardener. He reckoned that was when a hedge would always end up being left to go wild.

[Corris]

I think that's what's happened - not to bore, but this isn't a mess of my doing, I moved in two weeks ago tomorrow, and the (LARGE) garden(s) have been sorely neglected. So all the hedging has gone wild. The front garden has been kept sort-of under (although needs a new driveway installing, more parking, and I intend to make it 'cottage garden' rather than 'moss-passing-as-lawn'.

The back garden needed strimming not mowing and the hedges are the ones under discussion - I suspect there were once herbaceous borders, but now they are nettles and thistles.......... and there is a side plot which I have only got just inside and found a goat house (soon to house chickens) and a couple of rabbit runs and a shed, but I'm not a third of the way down - and that's only a trail I've hacked through the weeds, they are taller than me......... I have no idea where my boundaries are even, I THINK it's the tall hedgeline I can see, but I don't know until I can get there.

[Corris]

oh, and thanks for all the warnings about Laurel - who'd have thought eh?

[Glutton4...]

I'm actually quite envious, Corris. Sounds like a great place, and a wonderful project. I have a big strimmer - I almost wish I was nearer!

[snohare]

Sounds like the moral of the story is clear Corris - don't rest on your laurels !