ᐅ Garden Photos Chat Corner

Privet is great; we didn’t notice any flies at all, and why would we need a root barrier? I’ve never even heard of that. It also blooms really nicely if you don’t keep cutting it back all the time.

Thank you for the feedback. I had already given it some thought and see the following advantages of privet for me:
- can be kept relatively narrow as a hedge
- relatively low water requirements
- beneficial for birds
- affordable
- evergreen

My decision was basically final. Only my mother-in-law made me review/reconsider this. I had read somewhere (I don’t remember where) that privet can send out runners.

There is no such thing as a maintenance-free garden. Even these gravel gardens will eventually be reclaimed by nature unless Roundup is regularly applied. There is always some issue. Privet hedges meet the typical requirements for a hedge quite well.

It should be low maintenance, although that is somewhat relative.

Privet hedge needs to be trimmed twice a year if you want it to stay narrow and dense. This might require a bit more effort compared to a freely growing flowering hedge.

Best regards
Sabine

After much consideration, we also planted privet as a new hedge in spring, without a root barrier.

I couldn’t observe any flies that I would associate with the hedge, but there were countless butterflies during flowering. The neighbor’s hornbeam has many small white flies at certain times.

Every third plant already has individual shoots about 1 meter (3 feet) long growing upwards, which I definitely need to prune. This gives hope that we will have some privacy screening in 2–3 years.

Another alternative similar to boxwood is Japanese holly.