How to take care of your hedges

Planting and growing hedges can make your garden a safe haven for bugs and wildlife, complete a garden’s overall look, add borders or edging and even give you some much needed privacy, so it’s important to stay on top of their ongoing care.

These are our top tips:

Keep it bushy

When it comes to hedge trimming, keep your hedges nice and thick – this makes them into great little nesting spaces for small birds, offering them protection in the winter months.

Let the light in

It can be a good idea to hand prune your hedges before hedge cutting commences to allow some sunlight to penetrate the inside of the hedge. Hand clipping a few inside branches first can help your hedge to grow healthily with lots of light.

Timing is everything

Hedge cutting can be done at any time of the year, but we’d recommend an optimum time at the end of the Winter. The earlier that you perform hedge cutting, the less food that will be available to wildlife to be able to survive the chillier seasons.

Let it grow a little

Hedge cutting is necessary to keep it nice and thick, however cutting it back too often won’t allow it to develop. Let it grow out and up a little bit more each time before cutting. This will also allow more production of flowers and berries in your hedge.

Go native

If you’re planting new hedges, opt for something native to Britain, you will be more likely to find it grows without much encouragement and they will provide habitat and food for insects, rather than offering them something they’re not used to.

Make room

When you’re planting a new hedge, you need to consider that they often need 3 feet of diameter to grow. Planting them too close together won’t give them the space that they need to flourish and it will become difficult to maintain hedge trimming. It’s best to research the types of hedging available before going ahead with planting them.

Revive your hedge

Hedge trimming will ensure to keep your hedges nice and bushy for many years, but eventually, hedges can open up at the base. Should this happen to yours, hedge cutting at ground level is probably required so they can produce new stems and start fresh healthy grow from the bottom, up.

Who lives in your hedge?

Probably a case of what lives in your hedge rather than discovering an unwelcome neighbour hiding in the bushes! But it’s important to take note of what creatures and wildlife are living in your hedge rows, when they are most active and what they are using it for. This means you can tailor your hedge trimming and maintenance to suit them in order to keep them coming back to visit your garden year after year. If you have questions, then our team are happy to support help you. For full details on our hedge and shrub maintenance service, click here.