Help on hedges!

Rob Lockwood

Hi all

Fed up of the constant maintenance required for my privet hedge and wondered what options there were for a replacement which will grow to 5ft/1.5m, AND STAY THERE!  Evergreen.  Needs to cover a length of 9-12ft.

Happy to buy more mature plants if that gets me to 5ft height quickly.  Doesn't have to be any more than a simple screen to stop neighbours looking in, and probably doesn't have to be as full/opaque as privet (happy for it to be slightly see-through as long as it mainly screens).

Youu'll see below that it sits atop a 5ft-6ft wall dropping down into the street, if that makes any difference (ignore the scratty cotoneaster).

Thanks for any help!

nick615

I'll bring you back to the top of the list, but I rather suspect there isn't such a thing?  You may need to accept that a wooden etc. fence is the only maintenance free option.  Anything else will involve your adjoining neighbour who'll also be faced with trimming his/her side.

StephenSouthwest

I'm not familiar with privet - if it will take aggressive pruning, you could prune it to be much narrower and lower, which will massively reduce the work in future.

I also wonder if you might be better off with a fence, trellis and climber, though is the privet important for birds nesting?

GardenerSuze

@Rob Lockwood There isn't such a thing I agree. Nothing will stop growing just at the height you want it to, naturally plants just keep growing unless you cut them back. Smaller plants are easier to establish than large ones, so they settle more quickly and soon catch up. Sorry what you would like does not exist everthing will need cutting back eventually, that gardening.

JennyJ

Privet will take hard pruning. It's one of the more forgiving types of hedging (which is why it's so common). I'm not sure why you say it needs constant maintenance. Mine only gets two or three cuts per year - one in late spring/early summer after checking that there aren't any birds nesting in it, one in autumn so that it's tidy for the winter, and if it's a wet summer and it grows a lot, another cut in between. That keeps it at about 5 feet high and 18 inches or so wide at the top (wider at the bottom so that the sides have a decent slope to keep them green). If you do decide to keep it and cut it back hard to reduce the size, do the top and one side and then the other side the following year.

AnniD

@JennyJ, there is a follow up thread here.
https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1066793/hedge-help-revisited#latest

JennyJ

So there is, thanks @AnniD . Looks like the privet is for the chop.