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Box hedge help needed!

with.usurawith.usura Posts: 8
in Problem solving
So, my rented flat's garden has extensive buxus planting. Like all of SE London, we got hit hard with box moths this summer. Plenty of XenTari Raupenfrei and caterpillar crushing limited the damage somewhat, and there's been a tiny bit of new growth. Still loads of brown patches though! 

My question for you - what do I do now? Hard prune all the dead leafy business now? Later? Not at all? 

Thank you for your collective wisdom! 

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I would leave it till next spring now as pruning it back now would expose new cuts to potentially damaging frosts that can let in new diseases and fungal attacks.   Content yourself fo now with making sure all leaf and weed litter and other debris has been removed from under it and then, if you can, give it a good mulch of well-rotted garden compost or bought in soil conditioner.

    Come spring, give it a generous feed of slow release fertiliser such as pelleted chicken manure  to encourage healthy growth then wait and see where new shoots show and then, after the worst frosts are over, prune back to those.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • with.usurawith.usura Posts: 8
    Thank you for your help Obelixx! I'll do just that.
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