This past weekend, while celebrating Canada Day (yay Canada!), I spent the weekend visiting my mom, who lives just west of Stratford. A visit wouldn’t be complete without doing some gardening for her.

The biggest task for the weekend was to give her 30-year-old privet hedge a good haircut. Over the years, we have been pruning it at least three times per year. So, you could say that it is not my first stab at it.

Many deciduous shrubs can be used for hedging. Basically, there are two different forms a hedge can take.

We typically think of a hedge being kept trimmed to maintain a certain shape or height, so a more formal style. For a more relaxed or informal look, you can also let the plants grow into the shape and size that they want to be.

Some shrubs that are often used for hedging, whether formal or informal, are: Privet, dwarf burning bush, dwarf lilacs, bridal wreath spirea, forsythia, ninebark, blue arctic willow and weigela.

In this article, I am going to focus on pruning a privet into a formal hedge. Pruning deciduous hedges properly keeps your plants healthy, neat, and encourages dense growth.

Here are some essential tips for pruning hedges correctly.

Tools you’ll need

You may need a couple of different types of pruners for the job. The main one is sharp hedge shears (longer blades) or an electric or battery-operated hedge shears. The hand-held bypass shears make a cleaner cut than the electric or battery-operated shears.

I know, though, that can mean a lot of extra work and muscle power, cutting it by hand. The electric or battery shears, which do make the job go quicker, have two blades that go back and forth very quickly and tend to tear the stems instead of doing a clean cut.

These torn stems will not heal as quickly as the clean cuts made by the hand shears. If you have a long hedge … I will forgive you for using power hedge shears.

You may also need a pair of secateurs or loppers for larger stems.

General pruning tips

Late winter or early spring before new growth

The first thing to do in early spring is to prune out any dead, diseased or damaged branches.

Also, remove any branches that are crossing closely or heading through the shrub the wrong way.

Late winter or early spring is the best time to rejuvenate an older hedge. Especially if it is overgrown, sparse or has a lot of dead wood building up in it, late winter or early spring is also a good time to cut back drastically (down to one and a half to two feet from the ground).

New growth will emerge from the ground or from lower down off old stems. If you have a flowering hedge, prune after flowering if they bloom in spring, or prune in early spring if they bloom in summer.

During growing season

Throughout the growing season (April to September), you can lightly shear the hedge up to three times per year to maintain a formal shape. Frequent light trimming encourages fullness. Never remove more than one-third of the hedge at one time.

Shape matters

Make sure that the form of the hedge is wider at the base than at the top (A-shape). This ensures that sunlight will reach all parts, reducing bare spots at the bottom.

A flat or slightly rounded top is easier to maintain. You may want to use string lines or stakes to maintain straight edges and uniform height.

Joanne Young is a Niagara-on-the-Lake garden expert and coach. See her website at joanneyoung.ca