Our garden or yard is just like our head with hair. If we don't take care of our garden by regularly trimming the plants and giving them a desirable shape then it will go out of control to look just like our hair that hasn't received a proper cut for years.
While talking about this, trimming away the unwanted and damaged parts of the plants like dead leaves or branches to encourage their growth while taking care of their appearance and maintenance.
There are some important things you need to clear out before initiating pruning and trimming. You need to know what you've in your yard or garden. Because there are different ways to approach trimming bushes, hedges, and shrubs.
Then, you will need to make a landscape plan so that you can decide how you want to end up transforming your garden. Now, you can turn towards your pruning tools to make them sharp and clean.
Tools like Pruning Saws, Long-reach pruners, Loppers, and Pruning shears are some of the pruning tools that come in handy on this job. Keep in mind these tools must be sharp enough to prevent the plants from decaying!
Pruning Saws: They are used to trim the branches up to 5cm in thickness. For the best cut, mainly use the pull stroke though they are available on both push and pull strokes.
Long-reach pruners: These are best known for pruning tall trees and big shrubs having woody branches of about 3cm thick.
Loppers: Loppers have long handles and heavy-duty blades for pruning woody stems up to 3cm in thickness.
Pruning shears: They are short-handled shears for trimming branches between 0.25 and 0.5 inches or pencil-thickness branches. Pruning shears are best used to prune hedges and topiary.
Anvil style: Anvil style is ideal for pruning thicker and woody branches. More preferred to prune dead woody branches, it brings cuts that are more powerful than bypass cuts with minimal effort.
You have to have a complete understanding of your garden or yard. For this, visit the place and inspect the plants you have grown. Walk around them to detect damaged and dead leaves, stems, or branches.
The plants might have overgrown in some areas resulting in uneven and untidy appearance of your landscape. There might be many branches that have grown away from the center of the plants and that are likely to rub against each other eventually.
Plants need to direct their energy to growing new buds. You can help them achieve this phenomenon throughout their growing season by trimming off the unwanted branches and stems so that they can get a fresh start.
It has been suggested that the best time to prune is during the plants' dormant season and for most of them all, early spring or late winter is the ideal time. Keep in mind to avoid pruning during peak summer!
As you have inspected your landscape, you now know the plants pretty well. You can start pruning simply by detecting and removing those unwanted and diseased branches and stems off the plant's main body.
There will be many undesired leaves, dead wood, and diseased limbs on the plant's body as they grow older. These need to be removed for the healthy growth of the plant as they create obstacles to begin a fresh and new start.
Thinning cuts will make the plant more open by removing its branches from their origin. Good sunlight and proper airflow at the center of the plant are ensured with this cut which is essential for their healthy and robust growth.
These cuts help to stimulate the interior growth of the plants and make them resistant to diseases. New growth will be slow and plants can direct their energy toward developing a healthy body.
This cut can stimulate excessive growth by removing only a portion of a branch leaving it to a bud. If you want to reduce the number of buds in a branch then this cut can help you which will ensure more vigorous growth of the fruits and flowers as well.
However, due to the excessive growth, there is always a risk of witches' broom effects on the plants which means the development of thickened stems on the branches resulting in discoloration, distortion, or dwarfism.
This cut is best for giving a desirable shape to the plants for aesthetic purposes without paying much attention to the location of the buds on the branch, unlike heading and thinning.
It has been found that the plants chosen for shearing usually have buds on their branches very close together. Shearing generally reduces the flowering potential of the plants.
Trimming should be done very carefully working from the bottom to the top of the plant. While working on it, your preliminary idea of presenting your garden should align with your work of pruning.
This will guarantee an even and well-maintained structure of the plants and provide us the time to bring change to our idea, if any. Pruning from the bottom to the top will also prevent us from accidentally over-cutting the plants giving us more flexibility on our work.
It is recommended by professionals to follow the three-cut method for pruning thicker branches that are larger than 1 inch diameter which prevents the tree from tearing down by the weight of its branch during the final cut.
Keep in mind that health and vitality are crucial for any plant. Here are three steps for you to achieve the three-cut method:
First cut: Start by creating a cut underside of the branch (undercut) nearer to the trunk such that the cut should be 1/3 of the whole branch.
Second cut: Now, create another cut on top of the branch (top cut) a bit further from the trunk to remove the limb.
Third cut: For the final cut to be made, the imaginary line connecting Branch Bark Ridge (raised portion on top of bark which joins with the main trunk) and Branch Collar (slightly raised portion on sides and bottom of the bark) should be identified and cut along it.
As you are equipped with sharp pruning tools and with an early idea of transforming your garden while securing the plants' health and vitality, make sure you make the right cut at the correct distance.
Your cut should not be too close or too far away from the bud since it can bring harm to the buds and can cause rotting of the entire branch as water can get trapped, simultaneously. It is recommended to create a cut above the bud at a distance of about a quarter of the branch's thickness.
You should be careful about the angle with which you cut through the branch. Make sure your cut has made an angle of 45° to ensure safe pruning of your plants while shaping it as per the requirements.
This angle is ideal for pruning since the top of the cut will direct away from the bud and it will prevent the surplus tissue from rotting since the water from the top of the stem will get shrugged off.
While working on pruning the plants, you should be careful regarding the sides of the hedges or bushes. These sides are more responsible for the aesthetic requirements and the overall growth of the plants.
Consider making the top of the plants slightly narrower than the base. This will be easy if you are working from the bottom and moving upward. A narrow top will ensure proper air circulation and sunlight to the base of the plants which is crucial for them.
You must take your time pruning the bushes or hedges and time and again step back to observe your progress and the shape of your garden. This will help you make any amendments if necessary and make pruning more flexible.
Since you are at the final stages, make sure everything is as per the landscape plan, and do not hesitate to make the necessary adjustments to ensure the anticipated appearance.
After the final touch on the pruning work, make sure to mulch around the base of the plants you just trimmed. This will help them retain the required moisture.
Watering is also essential at the end of pruning since they are under stress during the entire work and it will help them energize for the regrowth. Before you leave, you need to double-check if any work is left behind and make sure everything has been done as per the plan.
Every one of us has this desire to make our yard or garden well-maintained with proper shape and tidy.
For this, we will all go for pruning and trimming. But it is not an easy task to achieve, it needs proper caution and understanding of the plants, pruning tools as well as our series of actions while performing the task. Here are some of the common mistakes while trimming the hedges and bushes:
You must choose the correct tools for trimming or pruning and not only that, the tools must be sharp, clean, and well-lubricated to avoid any additional harm to the plants while trimming.
The correct size and type of tool for trimming will ensure the smoothness of the work while achieving the desired shape without making the plants susceptible to unfavored diseases through the ragged cuts.
Another common mistake people often make is choosing the wrong time of the year to perform trimming and pruning of the plants. You need to be sure of the right time to trim the different plants in your yard since different plants might have different times for the dormant season.
Trimming at inappropriate times will certainly bring harm to the plants resulting in damage or uneven growth. Thus, you need to assess the plants carefully before trimming or pruning and make sure of the right time to do the right work.
It is necessary to understand that trimming or cutting plants too much at once will stress them which might result in their slow and weak growth.
Avoid cutting more than one-third of the plant at one time while trimming or pruning to prevent the plants from showing undesirable results such as burning or drying out, freezing, or even dying.
Once trimming has been done, it is mandatory to clean the area carefully and responsibly. The debris left behind can attract pests for the home and food.
The chance of breeding pests and diseases in your yard will increase if you ignore the cleanliness after the trimming work. Thus, it is necessary to make the area neat and clean to ensure good health and beauty of your landscapes.
Topping is the removal of the top of the central stem of a tree or a plant. It has been found that once a plant is topped, it will be highly susceptible to diseases and insects. It will remove large amounts of leaves and plant bodies that were responsible for making food.
Thus, before coming to this situation, make sure to plant any trees/plants carefully studying their final stature and the surroundings it is growing.
Trimming or pruning the plants by eliminating the damaged, dead, or decayed branches, leaves, or stems will bring several benefits to the plant's health and overall growth. We have discussed some of the important benefits of trimming plants below.
Removing the diseased and unwanted parts of the plant's body will minimize the risk of insect infestation and spreading diseases will be automatically lowered.
This will ensure the good health of the plants freeing them from any unexpected illness and thereby, saving us from buying lots of pesticides and disease-control techniques.
Periodic trimming and pruning will make the plants stronger and more vigorous. It directly influences the health of the plants and promotes new growth which will ensure their increased longevity.
Trimming affects the amount of sunlight received by the plant body which is a vital component for their health and growth. It is also responsible for solving problems of another species growing very close to one which hinders the growth of both of them.
One of the primary reasons to trim and prune is to bring an aesthetic touch to the back or in front of our farm or houses. A well-maintained garden having bushes and hedges is sure to attract everybody.
In the same way, hedges can serve as a natural fence making it more sustainable as well. Properly cared hedges and bushes will prevent flying dead branches and wood from striking our property keeping us safe and shielded.
Trimming off the old and unproductive branches, leaves, and stems from the fruit-bearing plants or trees helps them increase their fruit production. The opening of the canopy after trimming and pruning will allow more sunlight into the plant's body which will eventually stimulate the bud's development.
This will lead to more fruit production. In the same way, the removal of the unwanted and unproductive parts of the plants will minimize the competition for the required nutrients and water so that plants can grow more vigorously bearing more flowers and fruits.
