These yard maintenance tips for pruning shrubs can help homeowners keep their garden and yard looking luscious all year round. At Vandenberg’s Landscape Design, we understand how something as simple as pruning shrubs can make a huge impact on front yard landscaping and backyard landscaping. That is why we offer a wide range of landscaping services, including yard and lawn maintenance.
A few minutes spent pruning shrubs is one of the best things any homeowner can do for their garden; however, before you start pruning, it is important to know what steps need to be taken in order to promote healthy plant life.
Start pruning the shrubs by cutting away any damaged or dead branches with a tool that is sharp enough to leave a straight, clean cut. Consider using pruning shears, anvil pruners, or bypass loppers for smaller branches and a saw for thicker branches and trunks.
To promote healthy plant growth, prune shrubs just above the branch collar (the little ring of bumpy tissue at the junction of a branch and main trunk). Since the branch collar is rich with plant growth cells, leaving the collar intact gives the shrub a better chance to callous over and recover from your surgery. It is also important to cut branches on a slant, so rainwater slides off the end of the cut rather than cradling in it.
Younger shrubs should be pruned lightly in order to make them grow fuller and bushier. Unbranched stems should be cut just about the healthy bud to encourage lower side branches to develop and enhance the shrubs natural form. Once the shrub fully develops, consider thinning out older branches where they merge with another branch in order to open up the middle of the plant to more sunlight.
Older and neglected shrubs may require more extensive pruning, known as renewal pruning. For shrubs that grow from multiple stems at the base, gradually remove all the old stems, leaving the new, flower-producing growth untouched. While this process can take a few years of selective pruning, the new flower-producing system will eventually replace the old growth.
If you would like to learn more yard maintenance tips for pruning shrubs, or if you are interested in one of our landscaping services, please contact Vandenberg’s Landscape Design at 604-866-3023 or by filling out a contact form on our website. We are a Coquitlam landscaping company that is proud to serve customers from Vancouver to Abbotsford.
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