hey

first.. who's fert'd it for the last ten years??

it does NOT need such ... its a shrub.. not a child ... and.. if you fert the lawn.. it will get whatever it needs....

i hope you treated all the cut trees so they die.. rather than come back ...

a pic would be worth a thousands words of speculation...

i will yell... NEVER USE LANDSCAPE CLOTH ...

any mulch will do ...

edge it if you want... i just use roundup to edge ....

finally.. get an ID on it.. how in the world can we give pruning advice.. if we dont know for sure what it is .... and a pic will get that for you ...

might give us a heads up on where you are.. if i missed it...

ken

Good idea, I will work on a pic. It's pouring outside at the moment. I'm just outside Boston. Haven't had a chance to ID it yet but if you folks can help, that would be great.

Every tree/vine/weed was cut as close to the ground as I could get it, and treated.

The reason I was considering the fertilizer was to give it some extra nutrients prior to possible shearing of most of it's leaves.

When you say you Roundup to the edge, do you just spray it over the grass, etc. out to the edge of where you want your mulch and then put the mulch right on top of it?

By all means mulch. And the very reason Ken gives NOT to fertilize may be just as valid a reason to do so - any tree or shrub established in the ground can require supplemental fertilization and may benefit from it. Especially if none has been available for 10+ years. It is impossible to make absolutes like 'never fertilize' - sometimes conditions warrant it. It all depends :-)

And start any pruning projects in late winter/early spring or as the hedge starts pushing new growth. This is valid for pretty much any kind of broadleaved evergreen hedging plant. And you may not get it back into shape in a single effort - hedges that have been neglected for a number of years sometimes require multiple small approaches rather than a single big whack :-)

If you could post a picture of the foliage we can confirm its id. Then we can predict how it will react to pruning and how best to tackle the job.

OK Ken - back down :-)

I was composing my response while the OP responded so missed the part about fertilizing to offset shearing. Agree that is not a valid reason for fertilizing but to completely dismiss the need for fertilizing, especially if the garden (therefore the plant, any mulching and the soil) has been neglected for an extended period of time is not valid either. Soils often need to be refreshed with nutrients, either via a good organic mulch or with fertilization - necessary nutrients are not present endlessly in unlimited quantities. They become depleted overtime, especially with a mature but untended garden.

And "renovation pruning" is not a panacea for all shrubs. Generally that method is used in reference to deciduous flowering shrubs - broadleaved evergreens seldom respond well uniformly to that method and hedge plants in particular are typically approached differently with regards to pruning.

Not trying to be contrary, merely accurate :-))

And now....pics!

This is a close up of what most of the hedge is composed of.

It actually looks like there may be some grafting. Though they look similar, the leaves on the left are bigger and on plant with smooth, gray bark while the ones on the lower right (most of the hedge) are smaller and on a plant with darker, rougher bark. The appear to come from same root though.

This post was edited by orsawyer on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 22:29

Before.

After.

Any one know what this vine is? I'm not sure if those are seed pods or blossoms or what.

When I cleared back the big deposit of leaves from the hedge a lot of thin white roots were exposed. Are these the roots of something growing in the hedge? Or are they roots of the hedge itself? This area has a lot of that vine from the previous pic growing in it.

Your hedge is not Box it is Privet - Ligustrum. Depending on your climate it will be evergreen, semi-evergreen or deciduous. It is very amenable to being cut back hard. Here the time of year to do this would be winter but we don't know where you live so that may not apply to you.

I'm guessing the pods are Vincetoxicum. http://torontogardens.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/warning-dog-strangling-vine-about-to.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Renovating an old hedge

Thank you! I've got some reading to do now.

I would cut it down to the ground. All that topgrowth looks bad and isn't good for the shrubs. I know you put a lot of work into it, but that hedgerow will love you a lot more it you do a renewal or rejuvenating pruning job. It's hard to get up the courage to di it the first time, but it really does give you a far better looking result. Do it in the spring.