Has my hedge ceased to be

mdori003

Justagardener said:

The sooner you get rid of it the better it looks like Brian May's plug hole. If you are not going to put in mature plants, you could cut the dead hedge back to the trunk on your garden side and slip privet in  so it gets established this season. Then when times become normal, you can have  the old hedge removed (cut back to ground level) and still keep your privacy. It looks like the garden faces west? So it will grow towards the road anyway

Much as I like Brian may, I agree it needs fixed! Mature plants Is still the plan, just mucking about with propagation in the meantime as all local garden centres are closed as far as I know...
The roadside bit of the hedge faces east- would that plan work without digging up the old hedges roots?

Justagardener

The roadside bit of the hedge faces east- would that plan work without digging up the old hedges roots?

Unfortunately not as well...if you did that on the road side, are the trunks far enough from the tarmac to give planting room? I agree though mature laurel would be great

mdori003

Justagardener said:

The roadside bit of the hedge faces east- would that plan work without digging up the old hedges roots?

Unfortunately not as well...if you did that on the road side, are the trunks far enough from the tarmac to give planting room? I agree though mature laurel would be great

Hi- so there seems to be about 3 feet between the trunk and the road (measured from a healthy one and the worst one!) Is that likely to be enough to try?
Can I ask why laurel is better than privet? (I have no loyalty to either and I know laurel is very resilient, I guess I just assumed for continuity that privet might make sense)
Thanks.

Justagardener

3 feet is great you can easily do it from that side. This is just my opinion of course!.. Privet makes a great hedge especially variegated but there are a few downsides to it... you will have to cut it at least 3 times a year, it can look sparse at times in the winter and has a tendency to become seethrough low down. All that said, it is cheap and will be easy to plant along the front there. As with everything  it will depend on budget I guess. Judging by the pictures it looks as if you could easily plant anything along there, I wouldn't have thought it would be particularly rooty, then remove the trees to ground level. Perhaps whatever you do, water will be the key so invest in a leaky pipe after planting 

mdori003

Brilliant, thanks. Well if I can propagate something I'll can always try it and if not maybe laurel is a better longterm long-term solution when I get access to some more mature plants.
Silly question- would you have it a foot away from the other trunk? Or halfway between the verge and the trunk?

Again; thanks to all with the advice here, it's been great

Justagardener

Half way would be ideal...As long as you have some soil on the road side to pick up water it will be fine

Grenage

I would always err on the side of futher into the garden.  It's really common for people to plant cose to the boundary and end up with a lopsided hedge.  They need to be a reasonable depth, and you'll often see ruined hedges where the coucil has asked them to cut back two feet of overhang.

mdori003

Hmm interesting. I still think a mature plant is th way I'll go but I suppose it'll be autumn at the earliest by the time places are open/the climate will be right to plant again (mind you im in northern Ireland so summer temperatures are never particularly tropical!
I may plant some propagated plant in the space between the stump and the dead plants as there is probably metre there.
I should say; for some reason in a reasonably small garden there are at least 5 types of hedge (and fence on one side! I've attached photos of two of the types below...I think one is laurel? No idea able it the other one. It appears to be growing incredibly slowly if at all. If anyone is able to identify them I'd be grateful?

Mojisola

The second one is a Berberis. 

mdori003

Mojisola said:

The second one is a Berberis. 

Brilliant thank you.