Overgrown shrubs block light, crowd walkways, and hide your home's architecture. Here's how to keep hedges and foundation plantings shaped and healthy — and what to avoid.
Regular trimming keeps your landscape looking intentional and keeps your plants growing the way they should. Overgrown shrubs block light, crowd walkways, and hide the architecture of your home. But there's a big difference between a quick flat shear and pruning that actually keeps plants healthy.
Time it to the plant, not the calendar
Timing matters more than people realize. Spring-flowering shrubs should be pruned right after they bloom — prune them in early spring and you cut off the season's flowers before they open. Non-flowering and formal hedges can be trimmed through most of the growing season.
Selective pruning beats hard shearing
Selective pruning — removing whole branches back to a point — keeps plants fuller and healthier than repeated hard shearing across the top. When you shear everything flat season after season, the interior thins out and the shrub becomes woody and difficult to restore.
- Remove dead, damaged, and crossing branches first
- Shape for a natural, full form rather than a tight ball
- Trim hedges slightly wider at the base so lower branches get light
- For overgrown shrubs, plan a multi-season restoration instead of one hard cut
Don't top shrubs into tight balls
Topping shrubs into tight, dense shapes thins the interior and shortens the plant's life. It looks tidy for a week, but it's the fastest way to end up with woody, bare shrubs that need replacement instead of a trim.
If your foundation plantings have gotten away from you, our trimming service restores over-sheared shrubs over a season or two with selective pruning that encourages healthy interior growth. We also handle the related mulching and planting work so the whole bed looks intentional.