Question
I have a privet hedge that's about 50 years old and borders three sides of our garden. It's about 70 metres long and 1 metre wide. It grows in well draining chalky soil in the south of England. I trim it twice per year and I have never fed it.

Suddenly this year it's drastically reduced its growth rate - by about 80%. There is no sign of any disease or infestation and there's only the slightest hint of discolouring of the leaves in one part ie perhaps turning a hint of yellow.

In retrospect I wonder whether the amount of cuttings each year has been slowly declining for the last approximately 3 years but if it was, it was too gradual for me to notice at the time. But this year, instead of have about 10 bags of cuttings I've had one!

Does privet die of old age? If not how can I save it?

Answer
Hello Tom

The amount of trimming you've done each year is exactly right and privet is very long lived, though everything has it's time of course and 50 years is a very long time!!.

As there are no signs of disease or infestation I think environmental factors may be at work here. Have you had more rain than usual?  If so it's possible that the privet is water logged or simply can't take up enough nutrients.

Privet is quite greedy and as this is an old hedge and you have never fed it you could try giving it a good feed with a general purpose fertiliser - probably early next spring would be best as although privet is evergreen it does slow down in the winter - and a generous mulching with well rotted organic matter (horse manure is wonderful stuff!)

I hope all this helps.