Will a privacy screen stop my privet from growing?

shortcrust

The privet at the bottom of my garden has ‘bare legs’ (few leaves at the bottom) and is not pulling its weight in terms of providing privacy. I’m going to cut a good few feet off the top in the hope of making it burst into life but in the meantime I’ve bought some canvas privacy screen from Lidl (obviously along with essential shopping...) and want to put it up just a few inches from the hedge. My question is whether having this there will discourage growth at the height of the screen which is obviously exactly where I want it to grow. The other side gets full sun and the screened side is in shade, and the screen will let some light through. What do you think? Any tips for encouraging low growth on a privet also welcome.

PS. I think this is my first post since the forum changed. I’m clearly easily disturbed...

Justagardener

Can you put it further away than a few inches? If you have quite a few privet stems you could cut the shady side ones back quite low and leave the sunnyside stems tall it will fill in better that way.. if it's already shady the canvas wont help