In article m, PJ
writes
Hello

I have a quandary over what to do about the hedge at the front of my house.

The hedge is a privet about 6 foot tall, which is exactly how I like it as it
create tremendous privacy from the road. The problem is the hedge only goes
along half the front of the house, the other half has nothing, no hedge or
anything.


snip

Also I don't know how long privet hedges remain good for. I have this
horrible feeling that I will watch the new privet hedge grow gradually over
years only to discover that when it has reached the height of the current
mature hedge, maybe the old hedge will die of old age or something...

My father's privet hedge, planted in 1956, is still going strong. Over
the years it has acquired a few intruders - a holly bush for example -
but the basic privet hedge is as dense as ever.

Another possibility would be to remove the mature privet and put a new hedge
right across the front. The downside of this for me is that I do love having
the tall hedge now and it would presumably take a very long time for the new
hedge to get tall all the way across.

Maybe it is possible to buy hedge plants larger from somewhere which would
solve the problem.

You can do, but they will cost a lot, and older plants tend not to
settle so well as younger ones, which catch up and overtake withing a
very few years.

Your first approach - keeping the existing hedge and planting small
plants across the other half - seems best.

Temporary growing of climbers to screen the gap can give an illusion of
privacy while you're waiting for the short hedge to catch up.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm