When designing your outdoor living space, every detail is carefully considered to ensure it will look stunning for over 10 years. Once the dust settles, the sod is laid, and the pool, deck, and landscaping are complete, the keys are handed to you. This moment is significant for us. While the hardscapes, pool, deck, and related structures require specific sealers and routine maintenance, your landscape is a living, growing entity with long-term needs. To achieve the full potential of your design, you need a professional horticulturist who understands plant growth and the natural aesthetics that enhance and complement your hardscapes.
Unfortunately, many in the landscape maintenance industry view your lawn as just one small part of a larger workload, leading to a lack of individual plant attention. Enter the hedge trimmers.
The introduction of motorized hedge trimmers has arguably done the greatest disservice to home gardeners. These tools, capable of removing large volumes of material in a single pruning session, allow landscape professionals to transform a richly diverse, three-dimensional planting of various shapes, textures, and sizes into a flat, monotonous expanse in mere minutes. A quick trim across the top of a row of shrubs, followed by a few passes on the front and back, strips away all definition, reducing a beautiful landscape to a ‘gas station’ look. Pruning in this uniform manner forces plants into tidy shapes, sacrificing their natural growth habits and flower potential, as new budding wood is often removed at the wrong times. This tight, hedge-like environment reduces air flow, increasing the risk of fungus, disease, and insect infestation, especially in our humid, sunny climate.
If selective hand pruning does not meet your maintenance needs, a skilled horticulturist can use hedge trimmers properly to shape each plant according to its growth stage, preserving its individuality and maintaining its shape as a key landscape feature. For instance, a hedge of variegated Schefflera, a popular choice in the greater Tampa area, thrives when allowed to grow into its natural mounding form, showcasing the beauty of each bi-colored leaf. In contrast, ‘hedging’ strips away the plant’s originality and invites disease and pests. By addressing the plant from all sides and pruning it 360 degrees, you reduce its appeal to insects and diseases, allowing it to remain a valuable part of your landscape.
Your landscape is a complex, dynamic game of chess, and every move matters. Choose wisely to ensure your outdoor space flourishes in its natural beauty.
