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Privet Renovation
garethmcmorrow
Posts: 2
Hi everyone,
I'm a newbie to the GW forum!
I have a mature privet hedge at the front of my house. It's always require zero maintenance, but last spring we had some landscaping done and a large line tree removed, stump as well which was touching the privet. So no doubt some of the privet roots were damaged during this.
I started mulching it twice a year, since the work. But its looking
very bare and sad at the minute.
Maybe i need reassurance that everything will be fine or do i give it a hard prune on one side.
I mulched it last week with compost.
An advice to help revive - there's an old photo, as well as recent photo's included.
I would be very grateful for any experienced gardeners kind advice on what to do.
Kind regards
Gareth
I'm a newbie to the GW forum!
I have a mature privet hedge at the front of my house. It's always require zero maintenance, but last spring we had some landscaping done and a large line tree removed, stump as well which was touching the privet. So no doubt some of the privet roots were damaged during this.
I started mulching it twice a year, since the work. But its looking
very bare and sad at the minute.Maybe i need reassurance that everything will be fine or do i give it a hard prune on one side.
I mulched it last week with compost.
An advice to help revive - there's an old photo, as well as recent photo's included.
I would be very grateful for any experienced gardeners kind advice on what to do.
Kind regards
Gareth
0
Posts
Privet hedges always look a bit tatty by the end of the winter I find, but there does seem to be a bit of a problem with them this last year with nobody knowing the cause or the cure. It may be that as most privet hedges are quite old (40-50 years in some cases) that they are just coming to the end of their natural life span. I think you've done the right thing in mulching them but the mulch shouldn't actually touch the trunks as they may rot. You could also try reducing the height by a foot or two (if you can bear to) so the bushes aren't under so much strain to get nutrients/moisture to the top. Then it's a case of wait and see what happens when it warms up.
Hope this helps.
The mulch will certainly help improve toe soil structure and moisture retention but I agree you should maybe let some air to the base of the main trunk if you can do that but I suspect all the rain we're having will wash it down anyway.
It looks very well trimmed to me and full of buds so I would leave it be and wait and see but I would also give it a generous handful of fertiliser per metre every spring - pelleted chicken manure or blood fish and bone will do nicely.
Trim it 2 or 3 times during the growing season to keep it to shape.
The boundary on two sides of my allotment is solely privet hedge like yours and there is a lot of it. At this time of the year it usually looks rather sad and has at times looked almost brown in places. I must confess I don't give it any tlc but you can guarantee come summer it will be flourishing providing me with a lot of work cutting it down. When I first got the allotment I really thought it was on its way out but was assured that it would recover. Looking at yours I don't think you have any problems. Do hope I am right.
P.S. The bushes here are dormant invasive Chinese Privet. Never even planted on my property. They greened up with a vengeance this year.