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I have a roughly 15m long 1m (ish) high laurel hedge in the front of my house. There's a smaller patch of ground behind it that has a combination of weeds, grass and dandelions growing in it. House deeds (or whatever the document is called) says a specific section (roughly 7m) of what is laurel, should only be grass. This didn't bother me (I didn't plant the laurel) until a chat with an Openreach engineer surveying for fibre install - he said that specific section is an 'access strip' or something. Essentially it's got all the utilities under it and if someone needs to get at said utilities, say for laying new FTTP cable around the street, it gets dug up.
Now I don't particularly like the laurel so this seems like a good reason to dig the lot out (plus the bamboo some mug planted halfway along to fill a gap) and replace it with something else. I'm quite happy to just stick grass down, but I'd like something the local cats won't spend 6 months using as a toilet before it's established and we also seem to have loads of bees in the laurel harvesting goodness knows what, and I'm keen to support them.
Is there anything good that I could plant here? Other than 'generic wildflower seeds' that may or may not be any good? I'd quite like something low maintenance so I don't have to go out and water it every other day when it's above 10 degrees and hasn't rained for 3 days.
Lots of different heather? I know a few folk say 'how 1970's', but it works well as ground cover.
We planted ours through a black ground membrane, which we removed a few years later. It stopped both cats pooping and the robust weeds from coming back through.
(not my house, but you get the idea)
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Grass then - lay turf so it will establish quickly (now is a good time to do it before it gets too dry and hot). Then you can always add stuff later if you wish. And I wouldn't worry about the access strip - this is normal at the front of most properties and contractors are usually pretty good at working around whatever is in there - after all, they've had plenty of experience with it. Also, it isn't exactly a regular occurrence – I think ours has been disrupted twice since the house was built in the mid-80s.
Just leave it.
Act dumb if and when someone comes to dig a track and let them dig it up for you.
+1
Laurel is a PITA as if you just cut it down to ground level it just puts up new shoots from the roots. So you have to dig out the whole lot.
Let BT / others deal with it if they ever want to do anything.
Maybe something that lasts a fair while and is tough... A Hardy one?
It will take a load of digging out. We've really hacked our Laurel back, but it don't half grow and the roots are strong. Leave it
It will take a load of digging out.
It does, but it's doable. In 2017, between me and my brother, we dug out approx 12m of very established 3m high laurel over a weekend – most root balls came out without too much persuasion – you just need the right tools (we used hand tools for it all) and nothing has ever reappeared.
I ve just planted a wildflower meadow strip, instant sunshine from meadowmania. Recommended on here, anyway, 6 weeks on its blooming and blooming lovely. A real mix of colours and types, as 1 flower dies off another reappears. Ground needs a bit of prep, needs some bare earth and rake in the seeds, trample down, that's it.
If you can't be arsed watering it then wait until autumn until you plant anything. Sounds like you would just want turf if you're worried about it being dug up or do meadow if you only want to cut it once a year and it's got full sun.