Hedge Care Tips

There are key factors to consider to encourage the health and beauty of your hedge:
1.      Trimming your hedge annually is critical to promoting the kind of growth that will give it the desired fullness, shape and size.  Over time, skipping a year or more will leave you with sparse and oversized hedges.  You can only trim away one year’s worth of growth.  So, attempting to take too much off your hedge to make up for skipped years will certainly leave you with a hedge that looks ragged with holes and possibly dead spots. So, once again, your best bet is to trim every year.
2.      Managing the light is also an important factor in promoting healthy growth.  If your hedge is not getting direct sunlight, it will not perform as well as desired.  Avoid placing objects (canoes, boards, sheds, etc.) up against your hedge.  Blocking light can lead to dead spots on the hedge.  When planting a hedge, try to imagine how competing trees will affect it.  Plant your trees far enough away that the hedge will always get the sunlight it needs.
3.      Be careful not to have anything constantly rub up against your hedge.  Repetitive brushing up against a hedge will certainly thin it out over time.
4.      Do not drain pool water in your hedge.  Chlorinated or salt water can seriously set back part of your hedge…or, even kill it.
5.      Watering and fertilizing.  Watering  is not as critical in our climate, but can be helpful especially when things get hot and dry.  Proper use of fertilizer can give your hedge a big boost.
6.      Keep also in mind , as it relates to winter, a properly trimmed and shaped hedge will be more dense and will shed snow more easily in winter. Try to avoid blowing snow on the hedge especially snow with high salt content.  If needed, gently, brush away snow on top of your hedge.