Cutting Hedge on December?

Yes, I agree.

The brown patches must have been there long before. When it was cut, they just showed up. Before they were hidden by the leaves.

 

Yes, I cannot do much on the pre-exisiting brown patches, but as you say hopefully the green leaves will grow and cover them up.

 

Just found this from Google on when to cut privet hedge.

 

Privets are trimmed twice a year here - late May / early June and again late August / Early September, I get sick of the site of them after going round them the first time. The thing is if your trimmed now you won't have any new growth to be damaged because privets dont really grow at all at this time of the year. Like Verdun said they are hardy plants you could cut them down to the ground and they will regrow, not something you could do with leylandii.

 

Ha ha Shiney.....or cut leylandii leaving 6' or so bare trunks for supporting climbers.
I have done this adding galvanised rods to make a tripod around the trunks and planted clematis montanna. No sign of the supports and looks amazing in spring

 

Some on GC are ever the optimists that their Leylandii will recover. I seem to remember 1 in particular who advised they'd show us doubters, who advised the tree was dead as a dodo, a photo of their tree once back to full glory post a far too heavy prune....still waiting to see that the tree has sprung back to life.

 

Got to agree with shiney here ; best place for Leylandii trees are bonfires or feeding them through a bloody great chipper !

 

Professional gardener was cutting hedge on December too.
It says conifer, but would it be Leylandii?

 

Interesting thread. No I am not a perfectionist. Books etc may say this and that. Theory and practice. I plump for practice. So. Do I Prune, do I cut-back, do I trim?
The tree, shrub etc is in the dormant stage etc. No offence intended but. Are we under misunderstandings of what gardening or whatever terminology actually means.

So the privet hedge. Due to whatever circumstances, it has become a bit scruffy. The tight massed foliage is now hosted by numoures extended branches. These will be on the thin side. So cut them off, never mind time and season. Trimming, out come the hedge trimmer. Here you are simply giving the hedge a trim. No harm if and whenever. Pruning. This is perhaps a bit more aggresive. Here you are intent on getting rid of unwanted growth. Here you are intent upon taking control. You are now the designer. You have a mental picture of what you expect your plant to become. Go for it. When pruning, always cut back to a forward pointing bud don't just chop off willey nilly.

 

Leylandii is my neighbor's hedge in their garden. It is so huge, that it grows over the fence into our garden.

When we first moved here, they used to come and cut it. But recently I just cut it if they take up too much space in our garden. It looks great sharp and neat after the cut. And we got our space back after the ugly hanging leaves are all cleared, and even wife was happy with the cut too. So its not too bad. Brown paches and holes are not visible from distance until go very close to it and look for them.

After the cut, the other day, the neighbors saw me and thanked for cutting it.

Privet hedge is our hedge and they are in front and back of our house. I went out and looked at it this morning. The sky is blue, sunny and dry, but ground and plants are wet due to rain during the night.

If it was dryer, I would have cut the privet hedge, but I think I will just play with newly arrived pressure washer today

 

Maybe a little naughty!!! Ok, more than a little naughty but several years ago I entered neighbour's wild garden and cut down a 20' leylandii. I had asked a few times, it was near enough to my boundary to pose a possible threat in a few years. When almost sawn through the tenant there challenged me and I just said "it's going to fall so get back". It crashed exactly where I wanted it to.....more risk than skill. So glad I did......a couple of other leylandii further away grew to enormous proportions......qualified tree surgeons removed them eventually

Leylandii can make a decent hedge but, two things, they suffer from browning and they can cause immense problems if not pruned annually and kept to a max of a couple of metres.

Brown patches can be covered up by judicious tying in of green branches

Best not to plant them