Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
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I'm told privet will take very drastic cutting back, so I could have
done it all in one go, but I didn't want to lose the screening so I'm
putting up with it looking scruffy between thinnings and will probably
land up finishing it off next year.

Yes, you could cut privet back to a stump in the winter and have a (not
very dense) knee-high hedge by the end of spring.

Thanks for the replies - sounds encouraging!

OK, so what's the best time of year to attack it, then? There are two
criteria which may or may not be contradictory: first, maintaining the
health of the hedge, and second, minimising the time during which it
will look totally crap and the neighbours will be able to peer through
and watch our every move ;-)

David