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Renovating privet hedge with bare root

phill4phill4 Posts: 23
in Plants
Hi hedging experts! I’m looking for advice or any thoughts on my next step with an old hedge that i have hard pruned to renovate/rejuvenate. I don’t know how old it is (est 40/50 years +) and was desperate for hard pruning.

When it was fully grown mid summer the hedge extended well past the lawn edge that you can see in the photo. 

I have purchased 100 small bare root plans to plant at the base to do two things
1- try and straighten it out. 
2- encourage fresh growth at the base and try to grow/cut it into a batten with a wider base. 

My question is how far away / in front of the existing shrubs should I plant the new bare roots? They are small (1 year old). I ran a strong line around 12 inches in front of the hedge and think I might aim for that. 

I hope I’ve explained this is a comprehensive way 🙂

Posts

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    From a hard pruning like that, they should grow back from low down, particularly if you cut some of the branches at the front down low, so I would only try putting new plants in if there's a large gap, such as if some of the originals had died and been removed. You can allow some low shoots to grow long and then pull them into a horizontal position and tie them in to gradually fill gaps. New ones will be tricky to plant and get established in the root zone of the old ones.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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