When you have a fast growing hedge in your garden you may want to think about how often you trim it – and also whether you want to reduce it in height.
A good set of hedge trimmers will give you the ability to trim it regularly with ease. They could be telescopic and indeed this will make the job easier to do if the hedge is particularly high. You can also skim across the sides quite easily if you like too.
But when it comes to the height you need to consider what the effects will be if you lower it. After all once you have done it, if you don’t like it you will have to wait for a fair while to regain the height you have just lopped off.
To this end, give it some thought before you do start reducing it a bit. And if you do bring it down in height, do it a small amount at a time. For example if you suddenly decide to chop off two feet of hedge when the hedge is only five feet to begin with, you will be getting rid of a full 40% of what you had for starters. If this is too much you have no way of rectifying it.
But by taking off a few inches at a time you can give yourself time to look at it and see whether you like the lower height or not. If you don’t you can stop right there. If you do like it and you think it could do with losing a bit more in height, you can chop a few more inches off to see how that looks.
Consider whether you want to have something other than a flat top to the hedge as well. For example if you go for a wavy effect it can soften up the top and make it lower in some places than others. This is a good idea if you are undecided about how high or low to have it – you can have the best of both worlds and not have to worry about it any more!
So you see it pays to think about how you will do the cutting before you actually tackle it for real. Planning in advance is always the best option – and if you do this you will always stand a much better chance of getting the result you want.