Help with Laurel hedge

[Schoolz]

i planted a Laurel hedge last May. The plants were about 4ft when they went in and planted about 2ft apart. They have grown upwards (a bit) but not outwards so it is very patchy - some huge gaps where a couple of the plants were quite sparse when they went in. Any advice for a complete novice to help them become bushier?

Give them a good hard pruning next Feb. We've been doing that to ours for years and its now so dense and bushy that even the pigeons can no longer penetrate it to make nests.

They’ll have spent the first year developing a good root system. Expect more top growth this year

As a general rule with hedges, trimming the top encourages them to bush out sideways, and vice versa...
Please don't do them now though - if they are flowering they will be providing pollen/ nectar for pollinating insects and possible cover for nesting birds. As @MereDintofPandiculation says, they will still be establishing their roots too and would benefit from another growing season before shocking them by pruning. End of july, right into autumn would be fine. Laurel is tough as old boots and unlikely to be suseptible to frost damage, even if pruned late into autumn or winter

We've got a very large laurel hedge. In the first couple of years we put thick well rotted horse manure around them in spring and this really helped them.

Thanks all - so I should do nothing for now except fertilizer/ horse manure? What’s best if I can’t get hold of horse manure? And then prune around Feb?