A friend of mine who is working for a big gardening center helped me lately to cut my green waste for the compost and realized the branches were Privet. He claimed a Privet-Hedge would be a "living desert". No other species can grow there and most animals avoid it as it's a bad breeding round. It's flowers and berries are practically useless.
Is that true? Can someone confirm or recommend an improvement? (I don't want to cut down the whole hedge either)