How To Cut And Design Your Box Hedge

So, you have gone through the planting stage and want to dress up your
beautiful hedge by some careful trimming and designing. Your box hedge
that adds real beauty to your garden foliage eventually reaches a point
where its dense growth rate needs control.

It has sat in the shade of your garden and slowly but surely reached a point where cutting
is needed. Follow these instructions and you will give your hedge a new
polished look.

Trimming The Box Hedge

Do not trim too much as the plant should be allowed to grow naturally until it
branches out and touches the garden. Try and do this in mid-summer and
cut back carefully, a few inches below your desired height. Use a small
pair of shears to allow you to cut carefully.

Mark the horizontal points on the hedge where the cutting limits are needed using two sticks and string.

Cut some of the shoots below the clipped areas; try for approximately 12
inches beneath the clipped exterior. This helps ventilate the plant and
allows more sunlight to strike the shoots of the plant. Be careful when
pruning, just take small steps on the cutting.

Do not give your hedge a hilarious flat top, hold the shears vertically and trim the sides of the hedge.

Carefully Shape The Hedge

Do not overdo the trimming; it only needs to be done in mid-summer and
then just once each year in January. Try and pick a day in January when
it is not too cold. This prevents fungus from forming around the damaged
areas after trimming before the plant has managed to heal properly. Do
not traumatise the plant by cutting a few times a year.

There is
no need to shape the plant until enough consistent growth is seen. A box
hedge becomes dense foliage and it should be allowed to grow naturally
to that point first. Then just shave off any new growth, it shows as
lighter coloured shoots.

It requires very little care throughout the year.

Shaping Ideas for Box hedges

Have you thought about the shape while trimming with care? A walk alongside
the neighbours’ gardens growing box hedges reveals a range of tastes on
the shape. The topiary choices used by landscape gardeners can be
carried out by you. You can sculpt a number of differing shapes.

It is best to sculpt the hedge according to its natural shape. Does it
look like a pyramidal object or a cone as examples? It takes trimming
over a few seasons to get it right as it grows over the year.

Cones are easy, start trimming the top of the hedge down the sides till its
triangular. Cut at an angle and slowly. You won’t be creating a cone in
one afternoon. This will be repeated as it needs to be a gradual
process, so cut again twice during the year.

Watch through the year as your box hedge grows into the design shape you visualised. Take care of you hedge and be patient.