Reducing size of hedge
 

There is a large hedge (acer, I think?) which I inherited, on the
boundary of my garden, and although it's regular and 'rectangular' in
cross-section, is way bigger than necessary presumably due to
insufficient trimming over the years. It's probably 9' tall and 6' deep
(ie, across the boundary) and it's now very hard to reach the middle of
the top to trim it. Not to mention the waste of garden space!

What would happen if I attacked it ruthlessly to carve it down to about
half the height and thickness? It would obviously look really crap
initially, but would the leaves eventually regrow and make it look OK
again? Or would it just die?

Or is the hedge a write-off now? :-(

David

Lobster wrote:
There is a large hedge (acer, I think?)

Hang on, sorry, actually privet (I think!)

David

Lobster writes:

Lobster wrote:
There is a large hedge (acer, I think?)

Hang on, sorry, actually privet (I think!)

I'm reducing the size of one of mine slowly. When it started shooting
back in the spring I started chopping out occasional upright branches,
and cut the height down to about 6" lower than I wanted. The top has
now sprouted and can now be kept trimmed to the new height, the sides
are taking longer to fill in as the new shoots come in quicker with
light, but as they do I'm taking out more of the outside branches to
narrow the hedge.

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.

Anthony

The message
from contains these words:

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.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from contains these words:

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

In article ,
Lobster wrote:

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 ;-)

Late winter or early spring. If you kill privet by cutting it back,
I for one will be amazed. I don't recommend cutting a VERY old
hedge back to a stump, but cutting it back to 1-2' high should not
worry it at all.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from Lobster contains these words:

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 ;-)

Late winter - early spring, say, end of feb to beginning of March. (I'd
say...)

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Lobster wrote:
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from contains these words:

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 ;-)

Two comments:
Don't forget to cut back further than you want the final size to be.
(Otherwise you will have huge stumps at the surface of the hedge).

Secondly, can you lay a privet hedge the way you lay a hawthorn hedge?


Even if you can't, I assume you are going to cut something like five
feet off the top, and two feet off either side. You might be able to
get some sense of privacy by weaving the branches from the top into
what remains.

The message .com
from "Martin Bonner" contains these words:

Two comments:
Don't forget to cut back further than you want the final size to be.
(Otherwise you will have huge stumps at the surface of the hedge).

Secondly, can you lay a privet hedge the way you lay a hawthorn hedge?

I suspect that the growth form of privet would make it an unrewarding
enterprise, though I'm sure it is possible.

Even if you can't, I assume you are going to cut something like five
feet off the top, and two feet off either side. You might be able to
get some sense of privacy by weaving the branches from the top into
what remains.

Possibly - some of the shoots may be long and straight, but I think that
would be unnecessary if the work is carried out in the very early
spring.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/