stressed hedge

[Gardentoad]

I have a privet hedge that looks half dead.
We have had temperatures in the 90s to 104 and no rain for a month. There has been a few showers close but they always seem to miss my neighborhood. I have tried to water but the clay is just so dense that it runs off. They are in a raised border 2 railroad ties high. I do have mulch around them.

Should I cut them back now?

Normally I would have trimmed them back a couple times by now but I was busy with a remodeling project in the spring and now I'm not sure if I can cut them when they are stressed.
They are about 5 to 6 feet tall and to get most of the dead off I would have to cut them to 2 feet tall.
Our normal hot & dry season is in August.

[Chris_W]

It shouldn't hurt them. If it was some kind of disease then you would want to cut back into clean wood but it is probably just the heat and drought stress. They are privet and will come back fine. I have some forsythia that dropped all of their leaves but now that it has cooled down they are leafing out again.

[Gardentoad]

Thanks, Chris.