Need gardening Help (complete beginner)
Daniel Taylor
Posts: 4
Good Morning everyone,
I have recently moved house and as such have inherited a most beautiful garden plot of about an acre. I'm quite interested in getting into gardening but right now have little to no experience to draw upon. The first challenge I have is how to bring some of the giant shrubs into control as they are quite massive and overgrown currently. I was looking at buying a hedge trimmer or chainsaw but I don't know which one would be best or how to approach the challenge in the first place?
Im sure this will be the first of many posts so I'm looking forward to receiving some good advise so I can get cracking!
pictures of particularly overgrown areas below. I don't know the names of the shrubs, or how best to manage them going forwards either so all help and advise would be greatly appreciated.
Posts
P.S sorry for the typo's
Most shrubs will take a fair old chopping back, there are one or two that you will killstone dead! You will need a good pruning saw, loppers and secetures, if there are prickly shrubs, get gauntlets too (this is the voice of bitter experience!)
Dont worry about typos, im terrible for it too!
I would say no, no, no to a hedge trimmer and/or a chainsaw. Chainsaws are dangerous in inexperienced hands and hedge trimmers are no good for overgrown shrubs. What you need at the very most is a good pair of loppers. But what I would suggest is to go round the garden and make a note of what really is overgrown, then get someone in to do it. Not only will they know what they are doing, but they will have all the tools and be able to pass on some of their knowledge to you. And they will take away all the cuttings! Once the shrubs are at a reasonable size, then you can keep them in check yourself.
Hmm good idea, but I was looking forward to doing it myself.
no reason why you shouldn't do it yourself, but I do think Hogweed is right about chainsaws! key thing is to work out what can take a lot of hacking and what can't. Also, if you prune spring flowering shrubs like Weigela now, you will lose the flowers next year - you might have to bite the bullet if everything is really overgrown, however. If you can post some close-up pics and post them on here I am sure you will know what you are dealing with in no time and can then just search for advice on how to prune. Lucky you having such a big garden to play with! I am sure it will be lovely.
I would suggest taking cuttings from them and take those to your local garden centre or nursery. Explain that you have moved into a house with an overgrown garden and need advice on how to treat the shrubs. They should be amenable as you are going to need to purchase some tools for the job, and will be repeat custom if they treat you well.
Ok some close ups of the shrubs growing on the roundabout
I'll bump this up so one of the shrub experts can respond
the first one looks like laurel - that's about the limit of my shrubby expertise! If the leaves are aromatic, it might be bay (same family).
Not sure about the second and foruth, the third is that eleganus stuff, commonly used round here in car parks etc, the one at the tesco by me has recently been reduced by half and looks very healthy
Looks like you have a fatsia (the one with huge leaves that are hand shaped) behind the eleganus, i dont think they can be pruned, but i may be wrong
A general rule is to prune after flowering