What plants will grow under a leylandii hedge to smother weeds?
Answers:
Brambles and nettles are both very invasive. Nettles spread by sprouting from extended roots that are fed from the parent plant until they have formed sufficient roots to feed themselves. Brambles spread by rooting where the long leaders touch the ground.
To stop nettles you must insert a polythene wall to about 2 feet deep on the far side of your hedge. This is a difficult job and will be worse because of the leylandii roots.
The brambles must be cut back as they reach into your garden.
You could try to use a semi permeable membrane that allows water into the ground but blocks out sunlight, so preventing the weeds from growing upwards. It comes in rolls and is available from any good garden centre.
It is not impossible to grow plants beneath the Leylandii but anything there will have to compete with the nettles that are fed from their parent plant and have a head start on your plants.
Things that will grow there are Sedum that loves a dry soil. You will have to water them regularly until they are established but once they are, they actually grow better in dry areas.
Unfortunately this will not stop nettles which will sprout up between your plants.
Try using a weedkiller that you apply directly to the leaves of unwanted plant, (avoiding contact with plants and bushes you do want to keep). The poison will be fed into the roots and back to the parent plant. You will have to keep repeating this as new plants take the place of the old ones.
Other answers:
wow never known any thing to grow under them, try ivy, if not fell the trees then build a retaining wall then plant loads of veg its so easy
wow never known any thing to grow under them, try ivy, if not fell the trees then build a retaining wall then plant loads of veg its so easy
Pretty well nothing, only things really are what you have said. The are under the hedge is totally barren, will not get enough water to support life, the weeds mentioned get there water form a long way away. Vinca is the only possible viable one, but it is itself invasive. Personally all Leylandii hedges should be banned, and replaced with other hedges.
The best way to get over this problem is to create a small raised bed ie. lay something like railway sleepers (from a salvage yard?) and back fill with decent soil. then plant up with plants that can cope with the light conditions. if the hedge casts shade over the new bed then go for vinca minor (non-invasive) as opposed to vinca major, epimediums, ferns, rhodos/azaleas, alchimilla, digitalis, acer palmatum, hosta (watch out for slugs), cotoneaster dammeri, bergenia, pachysandra, tiarella, heuchera etc etc. If your hedge creates a sun trap then it's drought resistant plants you'll need - lavender, rosemary, thyme, laurus nobilis (all culinary herbs), cytisus, ceanothus, osteospermum, cistus, hebes, convolvulus, agapanthus, sedums, brachyglotis (senicio), more or less anything with silvery folioge or in the alpine section of a nursery. You'll need to water well to get the bed established but it will be worth it. I've used mostly the Latin names as different areas/countries can have variable names for the same plant - the latin stays the same world wide. Oh and get rid of those weeds first by using any systemic weed killer that bio-degrades on contact with the soil. if you want to you can just hack them down and cover with permeable weed matting, make a few small slashes then cover with your new soil. sounds like hard work but really it's not toobad - i've done this for friends and myself a few times and the reward is worth one or two blisters.
Vinca major...not the flowering vinca minor. It will grow anywhere and smother anything but still looks good.