On 3/20/2008 1:12 PM, ajax wrote:
Hi folks - first-time poster here with some pretty simple questions I'm
sure, so please be kind!

I grew up in a hot and dry climate and so I'm pretty clueless when it
comes to caring for and hedges.

At the place where my front garden where it meets the pavement, I
planted a row of privet hedge plants last September. They are spaced
out about 18 inches apart and are about five feet tall and still quite
young, but have begun to sprout lots of little leaves over the past few
weeks (of course).

As they have now started to grow, I have some questions about how to
prune the plants so that they grow into the shape I want. Can you help
me?

I want the plants to grow about 6-8 inches taller than they are now,
and I also want them to "flesh out" a bit more. Little sprouts are
starting to stick up. Should I trim them now or should I let them grow
more?

How often should I trim privet hedge during the growing season?

Should I trim the sides as well?

Many thanks for your help and advice!

Privet (genus Ligustrum) takes very well to shearing. If you are
ambitious, you might even try topiary with them.

In general, a hedge should be sheared to be a little wider at the bottom
than at the top, with slightly sloping sides. This ensures that enough
light reaches the foliage at the bottom. With vertical sides, less
light reaches the bottom, resulting in die-out of the lower branches.

I'm a docent at a public garden that's a showcase of garden design
concepts from different parts of the world. The privet in the French
garden is sheared about once every second week from late spring until
middle fall and about once a month during the rest of the year. It's
kept to about 3 ft high. That's because the design concept for the
French garden is formality, with symmetry and geometry. In the French
garden, boxwood and even the star jasmine are also sheared. (In the
English garden, however, plants are not sheared; they billow irregularly.)

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/