Landscape Maintenance: Three Essential Tips for Trimming Your Hedges

Posted on: 13 March 2018

Proper maintenance of your hedges is critical for a beautiful residential landscape. If your bushes and shrubs grow out of your control, they will give your home a wild look. Moreover, the overgrown branches can become harmful to people, and the health of the plant might decline due to overcrowding. Under ideal circumstances, you should hire a landscaping service for the trimming work because they have the expertise and suitable equipment. However, if you have some tools and a good sense of aesthetics, you should be able to achieve good results. Here are practical tips for successful hedge trimming.

Plan for Clean-up after Trimming

You should plan for clean-up of your property before beginning the trimming process. In general, collecting the removed branches and the fallen leaves from your lawn or hardscape can be difficult. If you would like to avoid wasting your time and effort, you should place a tarp around your bushes. When you begin trimming, the waste will fall on the tarp, and you can fold up the sheet and dispose of the waste conveniently after finishing.

Choose Shears for Branch Removal

You should perform selective removal of branches from the shrubs and bushes making up your hedge. In simple terms, you should not only focus on shaping the plants for aesthetic reasons. Selective branch removal or pruning can help your plants grow healthier and survive adversities. You should purchase a pair of shears for handling your overgrown plants. Ideally, you should begin by thinning out overgrown bushes. Remove the overgrown outer branches by cutting the limbs from the main stem. You should also thin out the interior sections of the plants. For the best results, you should focus on removing dead, unhealthy and broken branches. This interior thinning will promote the flow of air and sunlight to all parts of the hedge.

Use a Hedge Trimmer for Shaping

If you are interested in shaping your hedge for a formal look, you will need a hedge trimmer. You should opt for a cordless trimmer for convenient handling, and it should be able to perform extended reach mowing work. You will find both fuel and electric powered models on the market to match your needs. There is no cheat for successful hedge shaping using a trimmer. You will need to be patient and have a steady hand. If you want to cut the hedge in straight lines, you should use guides for better results. For example, you can place stakes and strings to act as your guides.

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