My conifer hedge is now about 7 feet tall and I would like to give it a short back and sides. I have never used an electric hedge trimmer before. Could any reader recommend one at £ 50 or under which would do the job? I understand that the diameter of the branches has to be considered
Not as simple as that I am afraid. Depends what type of conifer it is. The greenery may only be a thin coating on the outside with a very nasty looking dead interior.
You may find it preferable to have them grubbed out and start afresh
In my humble experience you can cut these tress right back, it looks nasty for a bit and the the green re-appreas. You should only do one side at a time, else you kill it. HOWEVER this might not work with every variety.
If you are doing this very rarely, the hire ship will be able to do you a realy decent machine for much less than 50 quid. A cheep machine may well struggle. I love my tools, but for a really decent machine that you don't use too often hire shops are wonderfull places. I don't mean HSS here, I mean the local small shops where they guy knows his machines.
Rick
AND the power of the motor. Having had a Qualcast that would gaily accept branches larger than it would cut, and jam every time...
No, don't listen to him. You can take 7ft down to 4ft easily, but main stems will need to be sawn. Cut main stems lower than you want the final hedge to be by 6-9".
And live with something that looks like it's been in a forest fire for a year when new ones are dirt cheap, can be trimmed as they grow, and take a season to get to good height.
I know which option I would take!
If they grow to full height in a seasn, they will only take a few weeks to stop looking like a forest fire (not that they do anyway, if its leylandii).
So do I. I have grubbed the bastards out. But if you want to keep the hdge its a conch to cut the main stems with a pruning saw below final height, trim them, and in 6 weeks the centers are back up where they are wanted.
If they are slower growing conifers, your method is even stupider. I drasticlally pruned my mothers holly hedge that had taken about 25 years to grow. It looked like shit for 6 months, now it loks better than efver. Grubbing it out and replacing would not have restored it till long after her death.
Since when has holly been a conifer?
And his Oak hedges are superb!
I nkow, but its teh ame principle. If its very slow growing it takes years to get back to size, so pribune it not replace it.
If its very fast growintg it wil repair itself in weeks, so prune it, don't replace it.
The ONLY rteaopsn to grub out a hedge is to replace it woeth soomethjing else, removce it entirely, or because whats there is so old and rotten that nothng else is feasible.
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