Planting privet hedge section now.

I'm a gardening novice needing some advice on replanting some privet hedge. Thanks to a neighbour's heavy pruning, I now have a 1 metre gap between the end of my mature privet hedge and a similarly long established tree.

I'd like to plant some privet to fill this 1 metre wide by 1.2 metre tall gap in the hedge. Initial googling suggests bare rooted plants are better than pot grown ones, and that now is a good time to do it. I've so far only found privet plants online, not in DIY centres (do garden centres sell bare rooted privet?) and at a variety of heights. I don't know what the pros & cons are of differing height privet plants, obviously I'd like to fill the gap quickly, which will be right on top of a substantial tree's root system.

I'd appreciate any advice on what type & height of plants to get, where to buy/how many/what distance between them, and any other advice on timing or feeding to get the fresh hedge section established quickly.

 

Good evening Roy and welcome to the site. If the gap has only been caused by pruning back too hard then I would leave the hedge to its own devices. It will soon fill the gap next year. If you still want to put plants in then use a couple of pot grown ones, as they already have an existing fibrous root system they should establish quicker than bare root ones.

 

daitheplant,

Thanks for the reply. Is the existence of the very mature tree (over two foot wide at least) likely to affect the success of planting the new privet? Or is this why you say pot grown over bare root? The original privet was quite thin in this area, hence branch removal (turning into neighbours garden possibly) has left almost nothing. I'm not sure how long it would take to fill the gap on its own for that reason, although soil conditions across the garden in general seem mature & very fertile.

Is there are depth I could try test-digging to assess whether new plants have enough root-free depth to survive? I'd quite like to put something there, as much as to re-establish a boundary as anything else, as they've been rude enough to remove it without speaking to us.

 

Roy anything you plant there will struggle bcause of the tree. What I would try first is to feed the end plants of the hedge with a high nitrogen feed from mid february and every 10 days orso through the season.

 

If I erect a temporary barrier, like chain-link fence plastic coated fencing, spanning the gap, would that encourage the hedge to grow along it? And what feed would you recommend to encourage growth?

Alternatively, is there anything else like a shrub that might survive better than privet, and fill the gap?

 

If Privet will struggle there, EVERYTHING will struggle there. Putting up a fence will not encourage growth. As I said, feed with a high nitrogen feed. A straight lawn feed would do, that is, one without weedkiller and/or mosskiller.

 

If I leave the gap open, how will the new growth bridge the metre gap without any ground roots along the way?

 

Prvet has branches, branches grow laterally and vertically. What, exactly, did your neighbour cut out?

 

How about filling the gap with a spotted laurel, in a large bottomless container.

Spotted laurel will apparently thrive pretty much anywhere as long as it can get its roots in somewhere. The bottomless container would enable you to plant it in compost without competition from the tree roots, but at the same time allowing the laurel roots to get into the ground where a normal container would restrict such root growth.

 

Incidentally Roy, I hope your neighbour isn't me, if it is, sorry. I cut a bit too much privet hedge away earlier this year, leaving a right mess of the hedge between me and my neighbour. Its coming back, but as I did it just as everything was slowing down, it is taking its time.

 

That's an interesting idea. I've found somewhere online selling them 80/100cm for £36 in a 10L pot. I suppose I could cut the bottom away from the supplied pot. Sorry if this is obvious, but would you plant it above ground or dig a hole to bury the pot? And how quickly would it bush out, and would it eventually blend in with the privet after trimming?

No, I'm not in the North East. How big a hole did you leave? I'm trying hard to accept the amount of damage they've done, but finding it hard. It's one thing to prune away annoying branches veering into your garden, but another to leave no growth at all in the axis of the hedge, for an entire metre, and say nothing.