Spider wrote:
gavinf wrote in message
...

Hi,

I just moved into a house with a garden (rented property) recently
after living in a city centre for 10 years. I must admit I haven't
got a single clue what I'm doing. I cut my hedge and now parts of
it
seem to be dying. It needs cutting again but I daren't incase more
of it starts dying.

Can someone look at the picture I've attached and perhaps
recommend
something I can buy or do to help restore it?

[...]

I thought it was a Thuja, but it still won't grow back if you cut
into old wood. There is a fungal disease of coniferous trees
called
Phytophthera (sp?) which would create brown patches where growth
has
died back. Usually, when I've heard about Phytophthera, it's
because
a tree is dead, or almost, so it is easy to get the impression that
it is fatal. (It may be!?). Have a google on Phythophthera and
see
if this gives you a) an image for comparison, b) a remedial course
of action. A disease like this would certainly relieve you of
blame/guilt.

On the other hand, if the dead growth is where you know you've cut
back into old wood, it may help to reduce the height of the hedge.
By cutting back the top-growth, new growth lower down should be
stimulated. You'll never get the dead wood to 'green up' again,
but
you may get enough new growth to disguise the damage.

You should still talk to your landlord, of course. Hope it goes
well.
Spider

If the picture is typical, I don't think Gavin needs to worry: those
rather small brown bits will soon be covered up as the green bits
grow. I've never grown thuja plicata myself, but I agree this looks
like it from the colour (are its sprays that shape, though?) Spider's
advice is sound stuff.

So, Gavin, don't have a worried weekend, and -- if, as I say, the
picture is typical of the whole -- I don't think you need to talk to
the landlord unless the thing looks awful come September, but I fancy
it won't.

If you do still want to prune (you don't say why), restrict yourself
to trimming branches individually, and always leave plenty of green
on each one: as Spider says, if you cut to bare wood on a typical
conifer it won't grow back.

--
Mike.