CUTTING BACK BOXWOOD HEDGE |
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Hedges will often overgrow their
allotted space and need to be drastically cutback. In the
northern United States and Canada, the best time to perform this
type of severe pruning of a hedge or other shrubbery is
early spring, usually in March. Branches should be left on through
the winter months since shrubs store energy in their wood.
Heavy pruning done
early in Spring allows time for new growth to emerge from
adventitious buds on the branches that you can't see. This type
of severe pruning should not be attempted during other
seasons of the year, especially summer. |
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Even with aggressive annual
trimming, this Boxwood hedge had become overgrown. It began
'flopping open' with any snowload and was crowding the plants
next to it, making access for maintenance very difficult. |
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The hedge had also gotten too tall
and was blocking the view of the rest of the garden from the
picture window in the living room. Early March had arrived, so it was time to do some major cutting back of this overgrown Boxwood hedge. |
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| We decided to begin pruning the sides of the hedge first, beginning with the outside. Some people like to use a stringline to stay straight, but that isn't much help on a curved hedge like this one. Therefore, it was necessary to judge the cutting depth by eye. |
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| Heavy wood like this would be difficult to cut with electric hedge trimmers, and may even damage lightweight models. Our gas powered Echo trimmers were the right tool for the job. |
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| After trimming the outside edge, it was time to trim the inside edge. Reducing the height of the hedge was the third step. The final step was going back over all the stubs to make sure the cuts were clean. Hand pruners work well for that job. |
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| Finished look of the hedge with our gray Echo trimmers at the top of the photo. Without gas powered trimmers, a person would have to use loppers and hand pruners to accomplish this same job. Next it is time for clean-up. |
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