Trimming hedge back to wood

[Twilkes]

We have what we have been told is a green privet hedge out front, and it's getting a bit misshapen - bulges where there shouldn't be any, much like a middle aged man (or woman, for that matter).

We hand trim it with shears, don't really want to go down the power trimmer route, but if we cut it back too much in certain areas it will be back to the wood.

How long would it take to take for new growth to come through? Now seems to be the right time of year to do it, as the green parts are growing fairly swiftly.

Or would it even grow back? Parts of it we would want to cut back 6 inches or more, is that too much?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

You need to research specifically for the type of plant whether or not it will regrow from brown wood. Lots of evergreen plants will not, and others are reluctant to do so. I'm quite sure that Google will provide the answer you require, especially for something as common as privet. But you're right to ask the question: evergreens don't always regrow from brown wood.

[RichB]

Privet is part of the laurel family and I am pretty certain that it shoots from bare wood.

[randlemarcus]

Privet is a tough old bird. You could saw it off to the ground, and it would come back. Might take a while though

If you are making up for a lack of maintenance, it will look odd for a few years, but you want to be rid of the big woody bits, and leave nice leafy bits there instead. I'd recommend doing top, one side then the other over a growing season each, so start on the neighbour's side Chop it back a few inches further than you want the trimmed hedge to be, and cross fingers. It may take a few seasons for it to be as good as you would like, but it won't happen by itself, by magic, so you have to start somewhere. Next year, hit it a little earlier, before it goes mad.

[Twilkes]

Thanks - it's our front hedge, so from our window we see the side that doesn't get so much sun (the side we're not that bothered about), and the opposite side is street-facing and gets most of the sun so presumably will grow back faster. It's the street side we're looking to cut back.

Will probably attack it in patches this summer to neaten it up but not end up with large areas of brown.

I'm pretty sure it's this:

https://www.best4hedging.co.uk/privet-hedge-plants...

[Mr GrimNasty]

Do it all at once, preferably in March/April. If you are going back past the fine twiggy outer layer into fairly thick stems, go back further than you want. Then trim the regrowth several times to get it nice and bushy until it has reached the boundary again. Personally I think it's easier just to level the whole thing rather than just do one side, if you can be more patient!

There's a lot of nasty fugal death type stuff (highly technical!) around these days and privet is not immune, so any hard pruning comes with increased risks, if it grows away nicely then suddenly browns - it's had it!