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Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @WhimsicalManiac. It's terrific to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about headge health.
Could you please tell our helpful members about the issues your hedge has been suffering with? Has there been a recent decline in health, or is foliage dying back? What's your fertilisation regime like, and when was the last time you applied some?
It appears that your hedge has some quite bare sections to it, which have likely developed over a period of time. If a hedge is not kept in check and pruned regularly, it will grow out of shape and overextend itself. This causes lanky growth and bare sections that don't lend themselves to a full, well-defined hedge. At this stage, there is no real way to re-establish the lower sections and fill them in. I see you have some lower branchlets left, so giving the top of the hedge a decently hard prune back could cause the plant to produce new shoots down lower.
I'm unsure what the little bug is in your first image. Are there many of them, and do they appear to be causing damage?
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
We prune it about every three months. The issue became obvious after it was last pruned. The leaves on one of the trees went black and started dying. I thought it might be because the trees on each side might have been too close. So I removed all the dead (easily snapped) branches. The trunk and other branches had give so I thought they might have had some life left.
I put compost on and mulch. I thought that would fix it. Another one started dying back.
So I thought it might have been that bug. I also noticed ants, snails, bumps and curled leaves with spider webs inside.
It appears that there might be some insect infestation and sooty mould @WhimsicalManiac. I'd recommend you start treating the whole hedge with Eco-Organic Garden 500ml Eco-Oil Concentrate.
Mitchell
