How often to water garden privet

The interval

A privet hedge is watered hard for two years and hardly at all afterwards. A hedge planted in the last two years wants a deep watering two or three times a week in dry summer weather, which is the 3 days of the schedule, and an established hedge manages on rain. The Royal Horticultural Society advises watering newly planted hedges regularly for the first two years and says established hedges should not need extra water. Growing season means the warm, bright months from spring to early autumn, roughly March to September in the northern hemisphere and September to March in the southern. In winter the 30 days is a ceiling and a dry spell is the only reason to water.

Check the soil, not the date. Push a trowel blade or a finger 8 to 10 cm down beside the plants. If the soil there is dry and crumbly, water, and if it is cool and holds together, wait. A hedge in a large pot or trough can be lifted at one end, and a dry container is far lighter than a wet one.

Water slowly and deeply at the base. Run a hose on a trickle at each plant, or fill a basin of soil around the stem and let it sink in, and leave the hedge alone until the soil dries. The RHS recommends a generous mulch at least 5 cm thick around new hedge plants to hold moisture in, kept clear of the stems.

Too much water, or soil that stays wet, leaves the roots without air and the leaves pale and fall. Too little, in a young hedge, shows as wilting at the shoot tips, and a hedge that has dried out in its first two summers is slow to fill in.

What is particular to this plant is its speed. A privet hedge typically puts on 30 to 60 cm a year once established, and the first two summers are when the roots that carry that growth are made, which is why the early schedule is so much heavier than the 30 days of winter.

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