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Hedge problems... Help please :(
I have a privet hedge around my back garden, it's roughly 8ft tall and until recently had a 5ft fence against the lower half. when i took all the fencing down the hedge was bare from not getting any sunlight i suppose. I thought it might start growing a few new shoots and thicken out but it's been 6 months and doesn't seem to have. was just wonder if anyone has any tips to encourage it to grow. i have put a wire fence up to stop the dog getting out but i was hoping for the hedge to grow through it.
heres a picture of before the fence got taken down. behind is just bare branches.
any help would be really appreciate
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Hello and welcome Josh
There's an old saying 'Growth follows the knife' meaning that pruning stimulates growth. In late January (i.e. before bird nesting time) I would cut the side of the hedge back and feed the base of the hedge with some Fish, Blood and Bone meal which is a slow release organic fertiliser. (it won't do your dog any harm - some dogs eat it!).
If possible try to shape the hedge so that it's a bit wider at the bottom than the top .... an A shape ... this means that the base of the hedge won't be shaded by the top and the sunlight will also stimulate growth.
Privet is a pretty tough plant and benefits from a good cutting back every now and then, so don't be afraid - go for it.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Spot on, good advice, although don't go saving on dog biscuit by feeding FB&B to the dog as a substitute! Privet, as Dove says, is so often just left to cope when, in fact, it really benefits from a feed each year.
H-C
Here is a picture of the hedge 6 months after i removed the fencing. Will it ever grow back to be a full hedge again? if so how long do you think it might take
thanks for all your help
I don't think you're going to get much regrowth from the lower part as it is. I think your best options would be to either lay it or coppice it down to a few inches high. Either way it will leave the boundary very open in the short term but the hedge should grow back vigorously.
If it were me, I'd chop off the lump of green in April next year, yep, a foot or more completely off and make the plant shoot from lower down. All the while it's got that green on it, it's going to concentrate its energies on that because that's where the leaves are and where any potential flower will be produced. Remove that and the hedge will be forced into producing leaf from wherever it can and that includes lower down the stem. However, I do notice the roofline in the background so something that drastic may not be your preferred option.
H-C