Conifer Conundrum

Conifers are like Marmite – you either love them or hate them. However, as Val discovers, they provide seeds, nesting and shelter for many birds

- Val Bourne

I LOVE most plants, but there is a spot somewhere deep in my psyche that makes me veer away from the conifer. I have friends who adore them, like John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries in Kingswinford in the West Midlands, and I have to admit that they look fantastic in John’s garden.

I’ve tried to analyse why I dislike them and it may be because during the 1990s I used to have a huge Leylandii conifer hedge that ran for at least 80 yards (73 metres). It towered above the garden and was an impossible thing to manage on my own, so I invited some rufty-tufty gardening friends for the weekend and fed them well. Together we took down every tree and the resinous branches were piled into the middle of the garden.