I have a line of Lilly Pilly's along my side fence planted about 10 years back to create some privacy from next door. They are probably over 10-12 metres high now but the bottom 2 metres are bare of leaves. My question is "If I cut along the line say 4 or 5 metres high will leaves start to grow under and fill up the 2 meters gap at the bottom and also grow high again"?

Hi Donna, Hard to tell which pathogen is the basis of the fungal infection. However, you can try a couple of things. Firstly, you need to ensure that the plant is not wallowing in a wet root zone. Sometimes drainage in gardens can be affected over time and surface as obscure plant health issues. Should you be satisfied with the drainage I would recommend you do the following: 1. Apply a solution of Seasol as directed on the bottle immediately. 2. Remove or clean away any dead or obviously diseased bark from the plant. Paint that area with a paste of Copper Oxychloride. This may assist if any bacterial infection is present. 3. Go out and buy some Yates Anti Rot Phosacid. Spray over the foliage and apply to root area as well . This is a broad range systemic fungicide which usually provides excellent pathogen defence. 4. When the weather warms up a little apply small amount of organic fertilzer such as organic life or better still some cow manure. Finally, cross your fingers and see how you go. Regards, Ted

Gosh, it seems there's huge ecological restoration needed in your neighbourhood, blckrose. You've certainly described an environmental disaster zone of monumentous proportions. All of those factors you mention have had enormous negative impacts on native wildlife thereby causing many people to reach for the sprays because natural controls are no longer present. As you would be aware, Noisy Miners have proliferated because of the massive clearance of native understorey thereby creating their preferred open woodland conditions. You might also be aware that a number of communities are now conducting Indian Mynah eradication programmes in order to encourage the return of native woodland birds, many species of which are threatened but provide wonderful environmental services such as control of insect pests if given the chance. Cat controls are also slowly gathering pace but, of course, much more is needed if we are to have a cat-free, native wildlife restoration culture in Australia. So if we are to reduce the impact & cost of sprays in our environment then the issue needs to be tackled on a very broad, multi-pronged front, as you are perhaps implying, blckrose.

It's rather a narrow planting area but if they've been going OK for all these years, that would rule out a lot of things. And there are enough past years where weather extremes have probably been experienced. Barring some sort of accidental poisoning.... something in the nature of a defoliant, or something used on the driveway that's washed in, I can only think, as you did, that the burial in chip mulch set them back. Maybe the chips leached something of sap into the soil, or generated too much heat buildup, or simply smothered surface roots. I can't suggest anything other than TLC and a bit of fertilizer to see if you can get them going again. I don't know enough about pruning to comment further.