Plant Care

All the plants you have in your garden and also inside the house, should be cared for correctly. This will ensure you get the best displays and long-life from them.

Renovating Overgrown Hedges

A growing hedge will reach a point when it will need reducing in size. Few conifers tolerate hard pruning, but plants such as box, yew, privet, beech and lonicera respond well to renovation. However, make sure this is done in stages and in the right season

Evergreen hedges are best hard pruned in spring. Deciduous hedges are best pruned during the winter, while they are dormant.

A quick guide: Prune back one side (2in to 3in) inside the required width. Then trim the top and the remaining side as normal. Feed the hedge well, water and mulch in a dry season. The following season, prune the other side in the same way. Then you reduce the height of the hedge the year after.

Hacking the hedge down all in one go is likely to have a negative effect. Although it depends on the type of species that the hedge is made up