... to think I've killed it?

[LakieLady]

We have a hedge between us and NDN. It's ancient and leggy and gappy. NDNs are responsible for that boundary, but we put chain link on our side to keep our dogs in and theirs out (after the vicious bastard crashed through the hedge and nearly ripped my dog a new arsehole - the NDN dog actually pulled some fur out of his bum!).

We didn't cut the hedge in the spring. It was pissing wet for weeks, and by the time it wasn't raining we had sparrows and robins in residence.

It had got too tall for my liking and half my lawn was in the shade all day, so I've just cut it right back to the boundary line and reduced the height by about 2'.

It looks fucking dreadful. It's like lots of little saplings about 1 or 2cm in diameter and hardly any green bits. It actually looks dead. I cannot believe it will ever recover and get leaves again. I can actually see through into their garden. I'm sure I've killed it.

Relations with our neighbours were just getting civil after 20-odd years (fine with her, he is a cunt). They're going to be really pissed off if I've killed it.

Is anyone knowledgable enough about hedges to reassure me? It's a lonicera nitida and it's ancient - the hedges were put in in the 1930's when the houses were built and ours is one of the last ones left. I' scared it's too old to recover.

Please tell me IABU...

Can you put a pic?

NDNs are responsible for that boundary

So is it their hedge?

We have one of these between me and my neighbours house, it's on their boundary but we maintain our side.
They rent the house and neglected it, it became so overgrown that it covered the whole path, the council made them cut it right back in January and it hasn't recovered, it looks dreadful. So I don't think they do recover, sorry.

If it's evergreen, chances are it's dead.

Well it was nearly a hundred. Everything’s got a shelf life.

chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69882.0

I don't know anything about it, but that link seems to suggest you can cut it back quite vigorously without killing it.

Whose hedge is it? I hope it’s yours and not theirs? Because that’s going to be expensive to replace.

I don't expect it will put out any new growth now as Autumn is setting in. What about putting a nice mulch under it to give it some goodness. Hopefully it will buck its ideas up next Spring.

Lonicera nitida?

Don't worry, they bounce back in no time and you can prune them really hard.

How come you just kept going and didn’t stop op.?

I think it’ll be fine. There’s a photo halfway down this article showing how she cuts it right back.
rachel-the-gardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/hedges-how-to-recover-overgrown-one.html?m=1

I've got a lonicera nitida in my garden that I tried to kill because I wanted to put a shed there. I cut it back to ground level last year, didn't get round to ordering the shed, and now it's grown back to around a foot tall and looks very healthy. I think the leaves only grow on the outer parts of the plant, so if you cut it a lot you'll get back to the bits that have no leaves underneath, but they are robust and will probably just look bad for a while then sprout new growth.

We have a huge lonicera nitida hedge and it can take being hacked back. In fact DP did exactly this a few weeks ago.

If it’s their hedge all you can do legally is cut back to the boundary line, and you are supposed to give back the stuff cut. You are not allowed to reduce the hedge

I would be really cross if someone reduced the height of my hedge without asking first

Sorry OP wrong time to prune aggressively. It would have been OK if you had done so in the spring as it would have spurred on new growth. The best you can do is hope that it will regenerate next year and help it along by fertilising it once you see fresh young leaves.

Give it a feed OP and it'll be fine.

Even if you haven't killed it, I doubt your NDN is going to be happy you reduced the height so drastically. If it were me, I'd be bloody furious. You know you're only allowed to cut back the bit that's on your side of the boundary, not reduce how tall it is?

@Blankblankblank, yes, it's their hedge.

@Gingernaut, It IS evergreen, but there are hardly any leaves on our side apart from the very top.

@Chloemol, I'd love to give them back all the cuttings! It would save a trip to the tip, maybe even two trips. The mound on our lawn is huge, and I've only done the first 20' or so. The garden is 60' long, and the hedge runs the whole length.

@Longwhiskers14, I didn't know about not reducing the height, although if I'd stopped to think about it, I probably would have worked it out. It's still taller than when I moved in, about 6'. I can't see over it, and I'm 5'6".

@Bluntness100, I just sort of got carried away with it, really. I'd still be out there if the batteries in the hedge trimmer didn't both need charging.

Thanks to those who have been reassuring.

You've only done a bit of it? Then you should stop and start preparing a grovelling apology for your NDN!

@GreyishDays, thanks for that link, it seems I've done the right thing, albeit not at the ideal time.

It looks like the 3rd pic in that article, except it's bald on top as well!

At the end nearest the house, there's loads of ivy in it, and it was spreading into the lawn, so I was keen to get rid of as much of that as possible. At the other end of the garden, it's overrun with "old man's beard". This is such a monster that last year, when I hadn't been well for a while, it sprawled right across our garden and into my other neighbours. It grows so fast you can practically see it advancing, and some of the "trunks" were 4' across.

Next door don't venture into that bit of their garden, it's totally overgrown and they've actually got it fenced off. All they do is chuck their grass cuttings over the fence, where they make a nice pile of rotting vegetation up against the hedge.

I'll sprinkle some feed over the fence in the hope that it'll revitalise the hedge, and keep my fingers crossed it recovers.

@Longwhiskers14, the hedge in the rest of the garden is nowhere near as tall.

We're on a hill, so the top half of the garden slopes. The first 20' is level, then there's a bed approx 15', then another 25' or so of grass. At the far end of the garden, the hedge is only up to my shoulder. At the house end, it had got to about 8'. I think that might be why it had got so leggy.

I've cut it so that it's narrower at the top, so that the middle and bottom get some light. I'm hoping that will help it thicken up. And I've pulled out enough ivy to fill one of those builder's bags. But we don't have one of those builder's bags, so we'll have to cram it into plastic crates.

By the way, you are not supposed to ‘give back the stuff you cut off’!!!
This only applies to fruit, and you ask the person whose tree/shrub it is, if they want it.
If you are pruning vegetation that crosses your boundary, you must dispose of it yourself.

Ok, it's not going to look pretty for a bit, but it should come back.

rachel-the-gardener.blogspot.com/2016/07/hedges-how-to-recover-overgrown-one.html?m=1

Ha that will teach me to rtft! Link has already been posted!

Just be careful op, go and apologise ASAP. Similar happened with a friend of ours. The neighbours took them to court and they lost their home over it!