“Your shrubs look absolutely phenomenal!” Everyone loves to hear such compliments when it comes to your lawn. It goes to show that you (or your contacted professional landscapers) are doing an amazing job on lawn care. Maybe you’re not hearing these kind words, but you are motivated to change that; time to give your lawn and shrubs more love and TLC than what they are currently getting. Let’s look at the basics to get you pointed in the right direction on how to trim bushes on your lawn. Here’s a how-to bush trimming guide for beginners.
Art of Pruning Bushes
What’s the purpose of pruning your shrubs? Do you really have to trim the crown of your plants? What is the harm in leaving your bushes to overgrow? Is it necessary to prune when the leaves and flowers of your plants are looking just fine? If you’re asking these questions, don’t worry, you’re not alone. It all comes down to this: your shrubs need your care and attention. Neglecting will result in your “gorgeous” shrubs to wilt, leaving you an unpleasant sight. When you’re looking to prolong the life of your bushes and plants and improve fruitfulness and growth, pruning and trimming are crucial.
The Time to Prune Shrubs
By definition, pruning is the cutting of deceased and overgrown branches and stems – to encourage the growth of a healthy plant. When you’ve got different shrubs or plants in your yard, you have to remember when is the best time to prune them? By following these simple rules, you’ll know when to prune bushes at the best time to promote the growth of your bushes.
- Flowering Shrubs. After the flowers have bloomed. The best time to trim is after they’ve finished flowering so that it is ready to focus its energy on new growth.
- Non-flowering Shrubs. Trim when you observe that the new growth is well-established. Your shrubs put a lot of energy into growing, so you don’t want to disturb that by trimming in the midst of that.
- Summer-Blooming Shrubs. Recommended trimming in winter or in early spring. After their season is over and they are taking a break is the best time to prune as to not disturb their growth cycle.
Pruning bushes in the summer isn’t ideal as the new growth will be vulnerable once winter comes, damaging your plants. Although, some plants (hedges) can deal with it and won’t have any problems in the winter.
Preparing the Pruning/Trimming Equipment
When it’s the time of the year when your bushes have fully developed or bloomed gracefully, you now have to get ready to prune by preparing your equipment. Before starting your quest for achieving a gorgeous shrub, your equipment must be honed and ready to cut thy bushes.
- First, look for and use only the necessary equipment for your bushes. With the set of equipment available, you have to think accordingly to the needs of your bushes. Depending on the size, if you only need to remove old, dead, infected branches, then consider only getting pruners. If you’re looking for a way to give your shrubs a haircut, then it’s best to go with a trimmer or shear.
- Second, your plants won’t like it when your equipment isn’t sharpened to its finest or if it’s not in the best condition. When you have blunt clippers, shears, and trimmers, they can’t make clean precision cuts like a surgeon’s scalpel. Dull equipment takes more time to cut and produces bruised cuts, making your bushes attract insects and vulnerable to diseases. Using sharpened equipment will get your shrubs a nice haircut, promoting fine growth.
Helpful Tips when Pruning Bushes
To attain gorgeous and healthy-looking shrubs, you have to remember these tips when pruning your bushes.
- Each year that passes by, your shrubs will ceaselessly grow and produce branches and grass that it needs to acquire food through photosynthesis. That means old branches will need to be pruned in order to encourage the growth of new branches. It’s recommended to prune your shrubs at their ideal time every year depending on the type of plant that you have.
- Rather than doing a number of small cuts, it’s better to do a few large cuts.
- Do a 45-degree angle cut on the opposite side, just above a dormant or healthy bud. This way, you can encourage the growth of that bud.
- Observe only removing ⅓ of the shrub per year to ensure that your plant will have sufficient leaves and branches to absorb food.
- Prune out entire branches to control the size and shape of the bush. This will open up space for light to penetrate the interior of the bush, encouraging growth.
- Even if it’s not the best time to prune your shrub, when you spot dead or infected branches, make sure to prune them. Prolonging the infection could cause more damage to your shrub.
- When you’re just planting shrubs, prune any broken roots and dead branches that you see to get your shrubs off to a good start.
- Don’t overtrim causing your shrub to develop an unnatural shape.
- Consider replacing oversized overgrown shrubs when you think they are taking too much space on your lawn or property. It’s an easy fix to plant one that’ll fit best in that newly-removed shrub space.
- Due to the heavy weight, cutting big branches requires a 3-step technique to prevent any tearing that could damage the shrub.
- First cut – cut on the underside of the branch just a few inches away from the branch collar.
- Second cut – at the top, just outside the first cut, remove the branch by cutting all the way through.
- Third cut – cut the remaining stump by focusing on the branch collar.
Trimming Your Bushes by Professional Landscapers
If trimming your shrubs is a bit of a daunting task for you, then let us handle your problem! Green Blades is set with all the necessary equipment that will help your bushes or shrubs achieve greatness. And with our trained crew, we will be able to use the equipment effectively to satisfy your landscaping needs. Don’t use your time for something your professional landscapers can do. Take a break!
For a free estimation for our lawn care and landscaping services, contact us.
