Help and advice needed regarding my garden hedges.

I have moved into a 1940's built house. On one side of the garden. the hedge has beeen allowed to grow a bit wayward. all the way up the entire length of the garden. The width of the hedge varys from about 5+1/2 ft to 3 ft. The hedge goes in and out all the way up my garden.

Can anyone with a knowledge of such things offer me some advice as how to trim the hedge to a constant wideth without damaging the hedge beyond repair. Also advice on when it is best to do this.

Many Thanks.

 

I agree with Loofah , let us know what the hedge is , we will all offer advice , probably not a quick fix but at least we will try and get you off on the right footing , oh and yes welcome to GC. Hedging can bounce back with some tlc

Spruce

 

Good afternoon Jim,
welcome to Gardeners Corner. Thanks for bringing some sunshine too. When you shown us what the hedge is like, I'm sure good advice will be available here,
Jenny namaste

 

Hello Loofah , Spruce and Jenny Namaste, Many Thanks for your warm welcome. I hope these photos will allow my hedge type to be identified. Once again thank you for your welcome.

 

Hi Jim

Looks like privet to me , I had one in my front garden house built in 1919 and from what everyone told me thats how old the hedge was ?? how they knew that ?? but it was at least 40 years old.

Good news with this type of hedge it responds well to pruning and feeding , you can cut now but check for birds nests 1st .

To start off with I would get the height all the same , it would look a lot neater instantly

How wide do you want it ?? you have mentiond 5 1/2 to 3 feet what would be your choice, to be honest this time of year I would only give it a trim on the sides , best leaving it if you are to prune it hard to very late March early April next year, its a tough plant but in a bad winter can lose its leaves plus pruning at the wrong time of year is not a good idea , I would say its a good two year project but if you do it properley will look stuning , what does the person next door do or dont you have one as if that the case I would offer some other advice about pruning , ie you hard prune one side one year then do the same the other side a year later the plant can handle the shock , I always fed mine on bonemeal in the spring and it was lightly clipped everytwo weeks this made the new leaves smaller.

Spruce

 

Thank you Spruce ideally I would like it to be about 2 - 3 ft wide. the folk next door just trim it every 6 weeks or so. Their side is kinda straight. The old chap who was in my house before me was about 80 years old and the garden had gotten out of control. I will level the height of the hedge out this season and do the hard pruning next season as you suggest. This might sound like a ... but, how do you hard prune a hedge. Do I start at the bottom and work my way up the hedge making it all the same wideth?

 

Hi Jim

No question on here is wrong, I ask all the time

I would aim for 2 feet width you can start top middle or bottom its up to you but sort out the height this year is a good start. Plus next door is regulary clipping which is ideal.

Hard pruning is when you cut a shrub, hedge, into the old wood this is what you will do when you drasticaly reduce the hedges width I should imagine taking all the leaves with it at the same time .

I have a feeling I was right it is privet as no one else has said it is not .

Is it your hedge ?? or is it a shared boudary before you start levveling out the top let next door know what you are going to do.

ps with the height if you want it to stay at 6 feet ? reduce to 51/2 to start off with this will make it easier for you to clip the top later on rather than hitting thick branches with the shears

Spruce

 

Privet: If you look at the veins on the leaf they branch from the main vein up the middle of the leaf and the run towards the edge of the leaf (like normal leaves do ) but they then kinda double back on themselves back down the edge of the leaf.

You need to cut it back further than the width that you want so that as it grows and branches it gets to where you want the width to be, and you then clip there - as Spruce explained for the heigh, cut to 6" lower initially and then the growth that "sprouts" will bush up in that 6" gap to give you plenty of material to then trim for the "top".

Same with the sides, except you will have to be more brutal, and leave a foot to create space for new side growth.

I've but my Portuguese Laurel hard back, on once side, this Spring. Haven't really got any good Before / After photos so will have to make do with these I'm afraid but hopefully they give you an idea of how brutal I was



You can probably gauge from the big-top and the bare-earth next to the lawn where the hedge used to come to.

This is a "before" picture from last year, taken from the opposite direction: