re: Ligustrum Question

the bottom third of the ligustrum in your pic has been "hardened off" for so long, it no longer carries any active buds. look at it up close, it will almost look like glazed ceramic. what that means is that the lower you prune, the harder it is going to be for the tree to re-sprout in any kind of attractive manner. put simply, you arent going to get a top to ground foliage screen from that tree. to keep a ligustrum screen, you have to hedge prune from the top down every year or so

i let mine get tall & leggy too, but i like them better that way