We have a privet hedge planted 20 years ago and never trimmed (although our next door neighbour has trimmed his side a couple of times). It's now about 8m tall and nearly as wide. We love it for the flowers - attracts loads of insects and smells beautiful - and fruits - attracts up to 14 bullfinches in early winter.
It probably needs trimming for its own benefit. So, the above advice suggests halving its height and doing it in March. Just how early in March? Things start growing early here in Pembrokeshire, so we often feel we've left things too late (pruned plants often succumb to something or other). Are there any signs to indicate when is too late? We want to keep it flowering if possible.
Hello Vonski, I'm quite new too so am enjoying getting in on things I might know a bit about. It's necessary to hard prune all new hedge plants from the start so that they thicken up so you're not doing anything that couldn't have been done before now. I agree it looks as if there was some attempt to keep it pruned back but then it's been left for many years to reach the straggly height it is now. Maybe you'd be happy with it at that half-way height, in which case just take it back down to that level and it'll soon look great. Your final height will depend on who's going to keep it pruned and with what. Balancing on the back of a trailer with a chainsaw is not very Health & Safety minded!
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Thanks for the advice plotter6, I will give that a go as I do have some parts of the hedge that are a bit sparse.
Hi,
When is the best time of year to hard prune a box hedge?
Pete
Thats bad advice nutcutlet
Thats bad advice nutcutlet chainsaws are very dangerous.
We have a privet hedge planted 20 years ago and never trimmed (although our next door neighbour has trimmed his side a couple of times). It's now about 8m tall and nearly as wide. We love it for the flowers - attracts loads of insects and smells beautiful - and fruits - attracts up to 14 bullfinches in early winter.
It probably needs trimming for its own benefit. So, the above advice suggests halving its height and doing it in March. Just how early in March? Things start growing early here in Pembrokeshire, so we often feel we've left things too late (pruned plants often succumb to something or other). Are there any signs to indicate when is too late? We want to keep it flowering if possible.
Thanks
Thanks. I'll see what we can do with it in MArch.
Hello Vonski, I'm quite new too so am enjoying getting in on things I might know a bit about. It's necessary to hard prune all new hedge plants from the start so that they thicken up so you're not doing anything that couldn't have been done before now. I agree it looks as if there was some attempt to keep it pruned back but then it's been left for many years to reach the straggly height it is now. Maybe you'd be happy with it at that half-way height, in which case just take it back down to that level and it'll soon look great. Your final height will depend on who's going to keep it pruned and with what. Balancing on the back of a trailer with a chainsaw is not very Health & Safety minded!
We cut an alder hedge at work back in September, colleague was surfing on the roof of the van! 100m hedge cut in around 90 mins!