Autumn brings about a lot of cleaning and sprucing chores. A lot of these jobs will require you to stay outdoors, and most of these are all about or related to gardening.

Pruning your plants is an important gardening chore you should not neglect doing this autumn. This is because you need to prepare them for the negative effects that the winter season will bring. Trimming is one of the best ways you can boost a plant’s defense against pests and diseases. In addition, pruning hedges in autumn will promote tight, green growth in the plant which will have the chance to harden off before there is frost.

The Right Hedge Trimming Process

When trimming your hedges this autumn, you need to make sure you remove all dead and diseased wood and competing branches since they can chafe and infect the healthy ones.  You also have to get rid of all dead leaves since pests, particularly insects, will spend the winter in hollow straws and seed stems. You also have to trim parts of the hedge that have already strayed too far and could be preventing people from safely using paths.

Although a lot of things will have to go, you should still trim and cut with restraint. This is because frost can damage cuts and freeze the back branches. If you cut too much, the plant will suffer frost damage and you won’t be able to correct it in the spring. As such, cut less away now so that your freedom to care for your plants won’t be restricted when spring comes.

Additional Tips

Below are some additional care and maintenance tips for your hedges you should take note of this autumn season:

• Make sure you sharpen your cutting tools before using them to trim your hedges to minimise the risk of tearing branches you don’t want to remove.
• If you’re pruning rounded and small hedges, use shears since this tool enables you to make very precise cuts for these types of hedges. To make the job easier and to reduce tearing, you will do well to use shears with wavy blades and gears.
• To have an easier time trimming long, straight hedges, use a powered hedge trimmer.
• Disinfect the tools as you go, particularly before use for different types of plants, to prevent diseases from being spread around the garden. You can wipe the trimming tool or trimmer’s blade using disinfectant wipes or dip it into a bucket of diluted bleach.
• Lastly, cut in stages if you are removing a thick branch. Start on the underside then cut from the top to meet the undercut and prevent the bark from tearing.

Regardless of the season, beautiful, thriving hedges add to the appeal of your garden and your property. You can maintain and enhance their quality this autumn by following the right trimming steps and techniques.

For more garden and landscaping tips, tune in for more Jim’s Mowing NZ blogs.

It is common knowledge: a garden is made up of different species of plants. These plants can be ornamental, fruit- or vegetable-bearing, functional, or even all three. Some types of foliage, though, can be both decorative and, at the same time, functional elements of a garden. Hedges are one of these.

Hedges can provide a visual barrier around a property or within a garden. A dense hedge can help stifle traffic noise from a busy street. It can also act as an effective windbreak.  A hedge made of spiky plants can also act as a physical deterrent to unwanted guests, pests, and even dogs and cats that will intrude into and damage your yard. When designed properly, hedges can also be used in artistic ways to partition your garden to create rooms or areas.

Hedges As Garden Frames

One technique used by seasoned landscapers for designing amazing landscape designs is framing. This helps create a clean and tidy look for a garden.

Low hedges make for great frames. From a distance, hedges that are about 600 millimetres high and wide not only hide any unruly weeds but unify the mixture of plantings you may have beyond the garden beds. If your property has a mixed border or garden on the whole, the hedge can pull everything together into something more unified.

Aside from acting as frames, low-growing hedges can serve other purposes, too. They can edge a path, surround a pond, water feature, or swimming pool, and even separate areas within your yard.

Plants that work best as low hedges include the Buxus Faulkner or Japanese box, Buxus Harlandii, and Murraya or orange jessamine.

Hedge Designs

The conventional image of a hedge is one of a neatly clipped, straight, and box-shaped living fence. This pertains to the classical, formal design of a hedge. However, an informal hedge, or one that is permitted to grow without intensive shaping or to follow a straight line, also offers benefits as well. A meandering hedge can look amazing if it complements a less formal garden design. This type of hedge also has the remarkable advantage of being allowed to flower and, in some cases, even produce ornamental or edible berries, too.

Choosing the Right Plant for Your Hedge

The first important element to look for in the right plant to grow as hedges is its being extremely hardy and long-lived so that gaps or spaces do not develop as it grows. In addition, you also have to consider your yard’s soil type and the local climate.

If you want to have a formal hedge, keep in mind that this will have to be clipped often to maintain a particular shape. Plants with relatively small leaves such as the box varieties are the best options since they can be trimmed as often as needed without looking ragged. If you want to have less formal hedges, opt for larger leaved plants such as Photinia.

For more garden and landscaping tips, tune in for more Jim’s Mowing NZ blogs.

Whether you have a small or large yard, when designed and planted properly, hedges can give your outdoor space an additional charming quality. They can be functional garden features as well since they divide rooms or areas in your lawn and tall hedges can minimise outside noise and even block strong winds.

In Australia, there are four popular types of plants used to grow as hedges. These are:

Buxus

Buxus, also known as boxwood, is perhaps the most well-known and popular choice for hedge plants. It is distinguished by its small leaves which gives it its primary advantage over other plant species. This is because the size of leaves can create a formal, tight hedge. It is a slow-growing plant and therefore easy to shape into a formal hedging style. It works best as a driveway or garden bed boundary.

For subtropical areas such as Southeast QLD and Northern NSW and temperate areas including Sydney, Victoria, and NSW’s coastal area, the English Box is the best species to grow as hedges.

Murraya

If you want a taller hedge that has the look of boxwoods, you can go for murrayas. Their creamy white flowers have a sweet orange scent when they bloom. They are easy to care for and are disease-free. This plant has a dense, twiggy habit and foliage that is glossy green in colour. Since they can grow really tall, they are great as a privacy screen or hedge.

Murrayas grow best in areas with a warm climate including Sydney and Perth and other northern areas.

Lilly Pilly

Lilly pillies are native Australian plants. They are evergreen rainforest plants with glossy green leaves. They come in different varieties that can have flushes of colourful new growth, from bright pink to red-brown. Most lilly pillies have fluffy white or greenish flowers followed by long-lasting red, purple or whitish berries from spring to early summer.

Lilly pillies grow well and are quite popular in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, and WA.

Viburnums

Most viburnums are very hardy and can easily grow in sunny or partly shaded areas as long as there is moist and well-drained soil. Some species are drought-tolerant; however, they will require additional water during the hotter seasons.

Viburnum odoratissimum and tinus are the two most common hedging varieties of viburnum. Odoratissimum is popular and grows well in QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, SA, and WA. Tinus, on the other hand, thrives well in temperate areas including Sydney.

To choose the best plant species to grow as a hedge, make sure you consider various key factors such as the type of soil you have, the local weather condition, and the plant’s typical water amount requirement.