And all about one species of tree. Law-suits, threatened law-suits - it's got so that the London Times gives over a first leading article to it, albeit facetious here and there. But the basic argument is well founded. House extensions require planning permission; so do walls and fences more than two metres high; yet hedge "extensions" do not. This anomaly is unreasonable, the leader-writer argues. And, apparently, a citizen, feeling wronged at finding his neighbours' tree shutting out his light or otherwise making life less agreeable, has not always been able to make the case prevail in the courts.
Civil proceedings, the leader informs us, can succeed only if the roots or branches have caused structural damage, or the right to light on a house (though not on a garden) has been infringed. Lawsuits, too, they point out, are also "prohibitively expensive". If a neighbour inconsiderately refuses to prune his trees, the victims are normally obliged to suffer in silence. So Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, proposes to allow councils to order the cutting of "nuisance hedges". It was found, the Times informs us, that 94 per cent of people support the new legislation on this matter.
We are told, or reminded, that there are precedents for legislation against pernicious plants. It is illegal to plant Japanese knotweed or giant hogweed. But a total ban on Leylandii? Hardly possible. Many hedges of this tree are fine garden features and cause no nuisance because of their position. But what if nasty neighbours just want revenge on some of their fellow citizens? A fee could be charged for the cuttingback, if ordered, is one suggestion.
This phenomenon seems to be fairly recent - since the Leyland cypress became so popular. It is popular, to some extent, because it grows fast - three feet per year it is said. What about other swift-growing treeshedges? Will the law reach to treating that similarly? Oaks of just over 20 years have been known to grow to 40 feet? And, by the way the Leylandii most of us see around Dublin and, a horticultural friend tells us, is not the slim, columnar tree pictured in the Times - it is a bulky, dark green tree. Fast-growing, too. This friend gains quite an income from felling the same.
Another friend sees daily two big fat examples growing in the back garden of a house in which he once lived - planted, he thinks to cut off the view of a garage or something similar.