Evergreen hedging has so much to offer the garden – as a boundary, providing privacy, giving structure, dividing garden spaces, providing year-round interest – and of course a safe place for birds to shelter and nest.

Pruning regularly will help to keep your hedge within its allocated space, which means that it won’t create too much shade, or become too big to manage easily.

Late Winter is a great time to give your hedging a short back and sides, it will help to rejuvenate your plants and keep them in shape, and it’s a great use of time when there is little else to do in the garden.

Tools for the job

If you’re planning a major cut-back, then use long-handled loppers as these are better suited to larger stems.

If you’re simply planning a bit of a general tidy, then a hedge trimmer is quick and easy to use, or you can use shears.

To prune…

Decide how much you’re going to cut and then start trimming at one end of the hedge, working your way along the length – and you should work from the bottom to the top, so that you can clearly see what you’re doing.

This also allows you to slope the hedge inwards slightly so that it’s narrower at the top, which allows light to reach the bottom so that you don’t end up with a bald base.

Aftercare & Feeding

Once you’ve finished pruning and tidied away your trimmings, remember to clear any weeds, ivy or brambles to remove competition for food and water. Then mulch thickly with well-rotted compost and, at the start of the growing season, treat your hedge to a sprinkling of general-purpose fertiliser to give it a good feed and keep it in top condition for the year ahead.

New growth will soon be visible, and it’s a good idea to trim this regularly to encourage a lovely green wall of foliage from top to bottom.

Now that you know how to keep your hedging in trim, pop in and see us for all the tools and feed you need – and of course we’re happy to offer more friendly, expert advice if you need it too!