When correctly cared for, hedges may be stunning decorative additions to your backyard. So how get right here from a shapeless and scary shrub? Straightforward! Discover ways to trim hedges! This information will present you the way and when to prune edges, and how you can hold them thriving.
Relating to city landscaping, practically each backyard has a hedge. They’re nice for offering privateness from close by neighbours as a dwelling inexperienced wall.
Whereas shaping a hedge generally is a fantastic strategy to create a backdrop in your backyard, it requires some upkeep to maintain it wanting good for the long run.
Listed below are some tips about how you can prune hedges, together with the instruments to make use of, correct timing, and some useful suggestions.
Trim Hedges
Pruning hedges may be very completely different than pruning timber. When pruning timber and shrubs, I at all times recommend following the pure traces of the plant. The 2 exceptions to this rule are hedges and topiaries.
As a result of rising a variety of vegetation collectively in an ornamental form fights towards how the vegetation would naturally develop, it’s greatest to plan the hedge effectively after which sustain with pruning throughout its lifetime.
Right here is the whole lot you might want to learn about how you can trim hedges.
Select the Proper Hedging Vegetation
First issues first, be sure you’re rising a hedge with vegetation that reply effectively to being grown as a hedge. Hedging vegetation may be deciduous or evergreen; broad-leaf or coniferous. The factor all of them have in frequent is how they reply to heading cuts: by filling out.
The Finest Vegetation to Use as Hedges
Vegetation appropriate for hedging might be famous “hedging vegetation” or “topiaries” on their plant labels. Some widespread varieties embody:
boxwood (Buxus)
privet (Ligustrum)
yew (Taxus)
laurel (Laurus nobilis)
barberry (Berberis)
quince (Cydonia oblonga)
Euonymous, holly (Ilex)
juniper (Juniperus)
thuja (Arborvitae)
cedar (Cedrus)
firethorn (Pyracantha)
Viburnum
Begin Trimming Hedges Younger
Vegetation which might be skilled from a really younger age make for the perfect hedge.
Within the first two years, the vegetation might be in the reduction of six to eight inches to encourage branching near the core of the plant.
Within the third 12 months, the hedge may be formed. This may decide its construction because it grows to its remaining mature measurement.
If the hedge isn’t formed till after the vegetation have grown to their full measurement, there gained’t be sufficient branching on the base to create a full hedge.
When the hedge is on the measurement and form that you just like, one of the simplest ways to take care of the look is to trim it regularly.
When to Trim Hedges
As a common rule, prune the hedge earlier than the brand new development blocks the solar from the decrease leaves. Because the decrease leaves lose daylight, they start to die off in favour of the brand new development.
Some evergreens are fairly quick-growing and should be pruned each 4 to 6 weeks within the rising season, whereas others might develop a bit slower and solely should be pruned as soon as. One of the best ways to find out how typically to prune is to look at the expansion and trim it earlier than it begins to shade the leaves under.
Disclosure: this publish was initially sponsored by Fiskars who offered me with the set of pruning instruments listed subsequent.
Trim Hedges Simply with the Proper Instruments
A part of studying how you can trim hedges is choosing the proper instruments to work with. Many individuals select electrical trimmers seemingly for comfort and ease, however they’ll really injury your bushes.
Electrical Trimmers vs. Hand Instruments
Many individuals use electrical trimmers to prune a hedge, however hand instruments provide you with a cleaner reduce and fewer injury to the branches.
An electrical hedging device will tear and rip the branches, leaving uneven cuts, whereas a hand device leaves clear cuts that heal properly and hold the plant wholesome. Uneven cuts stress out the plant and are an open invitation for illness.
Put together to Prune
Some of the necessary steps in studying how you can trim hedges is the prep work. Earlier than trimming your hedge, clear your workspace. Bear in mind, it’s at all times greatest to put on security goggles and gloves. Moreover, chances are you’ll want to drop a tarp under your hedge to catch your clippings to be able to make cleanup simpler.
It may be difficult to take care of a uniform form when pruning a proper hedge. It helps to make use of pointers as reference factors on the place to chop and the way a lot.
You possibly can obtain this by operating a string line tied tautly between stakes alongside the underside of the hedge to information how a lot of the aspect to take away, and operating a string line alongside the highest to information how a lot of the highest to take away.
Clear and sharpen your instruments earlier than pruning. Preserve a bucket of soapy water and a rag readily available to scrub your instruments in between vegetation in case you are pruning a number of hedges. As cuts open up the wooden to illness, it’s necessary to be sure you are protecting your instruments clear.
Listed below are a few of my favorite hedge trimming instruments that assist me hold my very own shrubs in form.
PowerGear2 Pruners
Use PowerGear2 Pruners to filter out any lifeless, dying, or diseased wooden. The branches of a hedge are thick and woody, so you want a robust set of pruners to make fast work of the venture. PowerGear2 Pruners provide you with extra energy than commonplace pruners, so you’ll be able to reduce thicker branches and use much less effort.
POWER TOOTH® Softgrip® Folding Noticed (7″)
Preserve a POWER TOOTH® Softgrip® Folding Noticed (7″) helpful for chopping branches thicker than 3/4″ in diameter for PowerGear2 Pruners and 5/8” for traditional pruners. The noticed blades are extremely sharp, so it’s greatest to maintain them within the folded place till you might want to make a reduce. The excellent news is that it’s going to reduce the department simply with these sharp enamel!
PowerGear2™ Hedge Shears (23″)
The PowerGear2™ Hedge Shears are smaller and lighter than commonplace hedge shears and but extra highly effective. This makes them very straightforward to make use of, particularly in case you are pruning a big hedge.
Begin pruning on the backside of the hedge and work your method up in order that reduce branches and leaves on the high can freely fall to the bottom.
Shear the hedge in shallow layers to be sure you don’t unintentionally expose bald spots in a few of the shrubs. Place the blades at a proper angle to the branches to get the cleanest reduce. Make certain to not twist the branches or strategy them at an odd angle, as they gained’t reduce cleanly.
Should you use a string line, be certain that your shears are persistently parallel along with your shrub to remain on observe. Should you are inclined to go off line just a little bit it’s not going to make an enormous distinction; the plant will develop and fill within the gaps. With follow, it should change into second nature.
Energy-Lever® Extendable Hedge Shears (25″–33″)
You probably have a excessive hedge, then the Energy-Lever® Extendable Hedge Shears will make the job a complete lot simpler! Extendable handles make excessive, hard-to-reach, or awkward cuts simpler.
If the hedge is brief sufficient, you don’t should climb up and down a ladder a bunch of occasions. If the hedge is taller, you continue to profit from telescoping shears as a result of you need to use a shorter and extra secure ladder. That is significantly useful in small areas.
Energy-Lever® Grass Shears
After pruning your hedge, return with Energy-Lever® Grass Shears and PowerGear2 Pruners to scrub up any of the little bits that pop up after shearing is full and to take away any leafless branches that protrude.
Grass shears are my go-to device for ending work. You possibly can see how nice they work on ornamental topiaries right here.
Restore Broken Hedges
In case your hedge has change into overgrown, or is naked or dying again, it may be laborious to restore. Evergreen vegetation is not going to usually fill again in; it’s higher to switch the person vegetation. Deciduous hedges will come again over time if fastidiously pruned when dormant.
Both method, it’s greatest to maintain up with the job all through the season and preserve your hedge correctly fairly than to repair issues as soon as they come up.
Extra Suggestions for Pruning
Pruning is nearly one among my favorite issues to do out within the backyard. I like to form timber and convey out their pure magnificence. There are a lot of people who find themselves fairly afraid of pruning, and these guides are an effective way to take the concern out of it!
A metropolis lady who discovered to backyard and it modified the whole lot. Creator, artist, Grasp Gardener. Higher dwelling by vegetation.
