Please help me with my hedge!

[atticusclaw]

We have a very long, horrible wire mesh fence down one side of our property and two years ago we planted 1000 bare root mixed native hedging plants. Planted in two staggered rows with plants roughly 50cm apart. At the time they looked like dry sticks (and DH was convinced we'd been ripped off) but this year have shot up and have gone slightly crazy.

So far I haven't wanted to do anything with them since the whole idea was to get some privacy but I'm sure I should be pruning them or something to turn them into a hedge. There are lots of long soft branches shooting upwards and outwards but I would describe them as tall and thin rather than bushy.

Should I be training the long branches along the fence and then letting them do their thing or should I be cutting them back to make them more bushy? And if I should be cutting them back how do I do that? It goes against the grain to cut them since then everyone will be able to see right into the garden again whereas it is now becoming a little more private.

The mix is hawthorn, blackthorn, dog rose, field hazel and a bit of bird cherry. With hindsight I should have gone with an evergreen mix but its done now.

Any help would be much appreciated.

bunp

or bump even

You should have cut them by half in early spring,I know it sounds a bit drastic,but you will end up with a scraggly looking hedge,with a bare bottom if you don't .
I would give them a light trim now,& the big cut next February.

We did this 8 or 9 years ago and we've missed a couple of seasons for the big trim, consequently we now have a giant bushy forest.
These type of hedges do take some time and work to get going but will absolutely give you privacy and a fabulous resource for birds, once you've put the work in and had the patience for a year or two.
Don't worry too much about the pruning, hack at them they seem to take it, but watch out for thorns.

I would be using the lower and 'sticky out' branches to 'weave in' into the hedge - anything that sticks out, aim to get it horizontal and pushed behind the next door plant - you will find you can even twist some branches from nearby plants together gently and this will keep them together - this will give you a much denser hedge at the bottom which will tend to grow side shoots off upwards from the horizontal branches. Nip off the tops of the tallest bits so that they branch - the more you nip out the denser the growth you'll get as you will tend to get two or three shoots growing instead of just one each time. Continue to weave in and pinch out regularly - once you get it under control it can be quite theraputic.

Thanks everyone, so can I literally just nip bits off now to start getting more shoots? Do have have to nip them off at any particular place?

I shall get weaving!