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growing laurel hedge
My laurel hedge, that has been planted up about two years, is now about two feet high. Do I at some point need to perhaps trim them at the tops to make them thicken up, as they are slightly spindley, or do I just let them do there own thing .
They are growing adjacent to a large oak tree in partial shade.
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Yes, trim them back and keep trimming them back. Prune not hedgetrimmer, those big leaves brown off on the cut edges. If you let them go all will be well for a while then you'll have large shrubs thinning out at the bottom but no hedge.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thankyou for the advice, i was a little bit scared to prune such large leaves in case I ruined the plants. Its not quite the same as trimmimg a box hedge!
It isn't is it. Cut just above a bud or leaf and you'll be fine. I usually do mine late spring in theory but often more like summer. Let it come up to the height you want gradually.
It may not always be so but I've found if I cut into older wood I get die back. Where I've cut out the died back pieces the whole trunk has gone.
In the sticks near Peterborough