Hedge Trimming
How often should you trim the hedges and plants around your property? The short answer is, as needed. For those watering their plants and fertilizing them on a regular basis, the recommendation is once a month in the growing season. For those who do not fertilize the plants or water them with an irrigation system, you could get away with trimming the plants every 2-3 months. This is a general recommendation, as different plant species will have different trimming needs.
Trimming of plants should occur when the new growth is still green and no more than 4 inches from where the final trim is expected. At times, trimming is requested when the growth is about a foot overgrown, and the stem has already reached maturity. This is not a safe practice as it could cause stress and disease on the plants.
Top Lawn Pros enjoy trimming your plants and making your landscape stand out. When we trim plants, we pay attention to certain details. For example, we make sure that plants are not crossing the fence line to your neighbor’s property. Also, if there are plants near your pool cage, we make sure the plants are trimmed away from the pool cage to prevent their stems from puncturing through the screen.
When requesting hedge trimming from Top Lawn Pros please communicate with us your desired outcome with the hedges and shrubs. For example, if you would like to box up shrubs, or if you would like them to be a round shape, please let us know your preference so that we can adjust accordingly. Nobody knows your property the way you do, that is why we ask that you communicate and let us know items that could be hidden inside of hedges and shrubs, such as electrical cables, air conditioning units, sprinklers, landscape lighting, among other things.
It is important to note that ornamental shrubs that have special shapes such as spirals will require a more detailed approach, and will require more frequent trimming than traditional and natural shapes. Depending on the height of the spiral each shrub can take 45 minutes to an hour to trim. Understanding this may help you select the shape that you want for your shrubs.
There is only one time during the year that we do not recommend trimming hedges, and that is during the spring when birds are nesting. You could always do a walk-through of your landscaping to ensure that no birds have built a nest around or within your shrubs and hedges. Once this is confirmed, you can request trimming to be performed on your hedges or shrubs without having to worry about the bird’s nest. If we notice a bird nest that has been actively used within your shrub or hedge, we will not disturb the nest.
Maintaining privacy hedges is no easy task. If you need your privacy hedge trimmed, we would like to know the specific height you would like to keep this hedge at, and whether you are actively growing it taller or wider. This is an important element for us to know, as it will dictate our trimming approach. As professionals, we are happy to provide you with our expert opinion but at the end of the day we will not be at your property every single day, looking at the hedges and shrubs. Therefore we would like to accommodate your style and what is visually pleasing to you.
Hedges should be trimmed in the early morning or late afternoon, but sometimes that does not align with the schedule. Performing the trimming in the morning or afternoon keeps the sun from beating up the freshly cut plants. If the trimming is to happen throughout the day ensure to water the plants thoroughly as soon as possible. It is natural for the plant to feel stressed after being trimmed. That is why a heavy watering of the plants and the root system is highly recommended the day of the trimming.
Top Lawn Pros guarantees that your plants will be trimmed with care. We will also make sure to clean up all the clippings from the flowerbeds and lawn once we are done trimming. We will bag these clippings and place the bags on the curbside for the county to pick up. If you would like us to haul away the clippings, we would be happy to do that. However, our default or standard practice is to bag clippings and leave them on the curb side as the county picks up yard waste once per week.
In addition to trimming hedges and shrubs, we also provide services for tree trimming and palm tree trimming. We have the capability of trimming trees and palm trees as long as they are not taller than 20 feet. We have a pole saw we use that allows us to reach the limbs up to 20 feet tall without having to use a ladder or climb the tree.
We recommend palm trees to be trimmed four to six times per year. The frequency at which palm trees are trimmed depends on a few key factors: one, the species of palm tree, two, the location of the palm tree respective of your property, and three, the type and quantity of nutrients added to the soil for palm tree health. All of this to say, not all palm trees need to be trimmed with the same frequency. We suggest trimming seed pods as soon as possible; the production of seeds takes up energy and nutrients from the palm tree. Trimming the seed pods will allow the palm tree to put nutrients towards leaf growth.
Tree trimming, pruning and shaping is recommended no more than twice per year. Excessive trimming of a tree can cause stress and, potentially, lead to disease. Not all branches on a tree are created equal. Some branches are more important than others. Also knowing where and how to trim a tree is important for the tree’s health. When in doubt, call Top Lawn Pros, let us take care of this for you.