My hedges have only been in the ground for a year and they are starting to thin, why is that, is something wrong?

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• My hedges have only been in the ground for a year and they are starting to thin

Now, this question wasn’t asked to us, but it is something we see more often than we would like when re-visiting a property when called to trim or mulch or perform a clean up after the landscape has been installed for even 9 months to a year or so after we installed the landscape.

Those who call us for the first time a couple of years after installation and haven’t really fertilized their yard as recommended, 2 to 3 times a year for the first few years and haven’t trimmed as needed, we will often see taller thinner hedges from neglect if they haven’t been trimmed. A goal is to design a low maintenance landscape which we define as requiring a trim of the landscape bushes and hedges 3 to 4 times a year or less. Some items in a design a client may wish for may be higher maintenance items and we make a point to let our customers know what to expect.

Once a hedge begins to thin at the bottom, even a younger one that has been in the ground for a year or two, it is harder to get that hedge to thicken up at the bottom. Sometimes a harder trim back is required, cutting more than just the tops off of the thinned out hedge, but even for example cutting a 5’ tall, very thin young hedge or plant, such as a Hibiscus down to 3 to 3’ ½’ feet. Possibly 4’ height. It depends on the situation.

It is only usually in properties we see that have been neglected where the bushes, as young as one to years old start thinning out at the bottom. They haven’t been trimmed in a long time, maybe only a couple of times in a couple of years, if that for some.

The trimming helps to keep the growth more compact. It is actually healthier for the plant or hedge to trim. Different plants may require different trim styles of course as leaf patterns, large tropical leaves may need pruning at a stalk of the leaf while others with more leaves can be trimmed regularly across and consistent on the top and sides to be shaped.

Main point we hope people take away from this short commentary is that keep your bushes or hedges trimmed, as mentioned at least twice a year, sometimes 3 to 4 depending on the plant variety in the first years if you don’t want them to get leggy on the bottom.