Half a hedge - better than none?

kw: observations, photographs, local events

When we moved to our current house fifteen years ago, we obtained a hedge for the first time. I would not volunteer to own another hedge, but while we are here, we can't simply ignore it. At the beginning, I saw that it had been badly trimmed for a long time, and was overhanging quite a bit. Hedges need to be slightly narrower at the top, not quite straight up. This was twice as wide at the top, and lower branches had no leaves. I learned that Privet is very robust, so I cut it back to the shape I wanted, and we endured about a year of ugly hedge until it leafed out again.

Since then, no matter how frequently we trim it, it seems to gain on us, and while it has kept a good shape, it is quite a bit thicker than it was. In particular, a 110-foot (30m) stretch overhangs the sidewalk by at least half a meter. I decided to slim it down. I spent half a day at it today, and got half of it cut back. Here is how it looked by midafternoon, looking along the sidewalk to show how the uncut portion hangs over.

I had begun by using a hedge trimmer, but found that many of the branches I needed to cut were too thick for it. I made better headway by using a lopper. At first I was cutting everything upand bagging it, but we soon decided it was better to bundle the long twigs, and just bag small pieces.

I've already let my neighbors know my plans to uglify their view for half a year or so. Luckily, they don't mind. (As I type, the sore muscles and joints of my shoulders and arms reinforce my decision that, whenever we move again, there will be no more hedges! I still have half a day's work ahead of me to finish!!) The upside they all know is, now it will again be possible for two people to walk side by side down that sidewalk.

Here is a panorama of the hedge in its current state: half done.


Preview of coming attractions: This hedge is also troubled by Privet Rust Mites. I've sprayed for them a couple times, but it is quite hard to get to the back sides of the leaves. Come May, just as the leaves begin to grow, I'll be able to spray right through the hedge from the cut side and eliminate the mites.