How to Trim your Hedges

Essential Tips for Shaping and Maintaining a Healthy Hedge

After you plant a hedge, it’s important to start trimming it to the desired shape while the plants are still young.  

However, leave the main stem of each plant uncut until the hedge reaches the desired height. Cut all other branches back by half their length. To prevent the lower branches from losing their leaves, shape the hedge so that the sides slope inwards from bottom to top. If you don’t do this, the lower part of the hedge won’t receive enough light.

Once the hedge is fully grown, trim it regularly. We recommend tying a string along the planned cutting line to help guide your cuts and ensure they stay straight. If your hedge gets out of shape, the only solution in many cases is to cut it back rigorously, but you can’t do this with all types of hedges. Conifers, in particular, react negatively when you cut them back into the old wood.

Trim hedges made of plants that lose their leaves in winter, as well as privet, which keeps its leaves, during the winter while the vegetation is resting. You can make a second cut at the beginning of August (but not before, as this might disturb any birds nesting in the hedge).

Trim evergreen hedges and conifer hedges just before the new shoots appear in spring. Alternatively, trim them in autumn. Focus on trimming only the new shoots, as this encourages more buds on the remaining wood to develop into twigs. Trimming in this way results in a bushy hedge that provides good screening.