Hi all, just joined - I was a very occasional poster over at Gardeners World so glad to have found this place. I enjoy gardening when I have time to do it - but with a full time job and two kids it often seems to elude me! Two years ago we moved house. Our new garden is well established and has some nice plants in it, but we’ve neglected it more than we should and now it’s starting to get out of hand. I’m determined to start making some decisions and looking after it properly, but often find myself intimidated by large scale jobs, like removing plants or severe pruning. The garden is broadly south facing but we have tall trees at the back so it’s actually quite shady, especially outside of high summer. I’ve got some specific questions which I’ll post in other bits of the forum, and will be looking around for inspiration and useful info to make our garden the lovely place I know it can be.
Hi and Welcome to the Forum, Lots of other ex GW folk in here now, so sure you will soon enjoy your new home .
I know exactly how hard it can be when you're working and have children @orbitingstar , so take time over winter to make your plans. Lots of pruning and/or removal can be done at this time of year if there's things you really don't like, or are overgrown. Everyone is very helpful here so I'm sure you'll get plenty of help with IDs and advice etc if you post pix too. It's why I like a blank canvas though
Thanks @fairygirl! The structure of the garden is pretty good so I don’t think we need to do too much with the hard landscaping. Hoping to have time in the next few days to get out there and at least measure and start thinking about what to get rid of/cut down to size. I’m itching to start to be honest - but I know it’s a bit early to be doing rejuvenation pruning.
Hi @orbitingstar. Taking a garden back in hand can be daunting but is made easier by breaking the jobs down into groups - pruning, weeding and so on. Pruning overgrown shrubs can be scary, especially if you're not sure what they are, but if you can post photos of each one we can help. The first thing is the 3 Ds - cut out all dead, damaged or diseased stems using clean, sharp secateurs or loppers. After that, there is a good basic rule you can follow and it applies to most shrubs which flower on growth from a previous season - using sharp secateurs or loppers, remove one third of all the stems back to the base. Choose the oldest looking stems with the roughest bark. That will lighten the shrub and allow air to circulate as well as encouraging fresh new growth next spring. If the remaining stems are too long, trim them back a bit but remember that next year's flowers will appear on what's left now. Give the shrub a good drink if it's been dry and then a mulch of organic matter such as well-rotted garden compost or manure or some spent potting compost enriched with pelleted chicken manure. Doing this one third pruning will mean your shrub is renewed every 3 years and retains vigour as well as a controlled size. Shrubs like hydrangea paniculata that flower on new growth can just be pruned back hard in early spring and fed. Shrubs grown for their coloured bark also get pruned back hard in early spring as the new stems will have the best colour.
Thanks @Obelix-Vendée that's so helpful. Is there a particularly good thread to post in about specific shrubs or ailing ones? I know I have a forsythia which isn't supposed to be pruned until after it flowers next year, but it's so top heavy I'm rather worried it might fall over once I take the other shrubs down/out, so I think I might just have to sacrifice the flowers for a year to get it sorted. If I've successfully managed to post a picture, its leaves are the green blob near the top right of this group, but the actual roots are right back near the fence. Edit: Oh dear, an upside-down picture. How do I fix that?
The forsythia will be fine. Following the one third rule will leave plenty of support for it and they have their own woody stems lower down anyway. Those fresh looking, softer shoots will harden up over the autumn and flower next year and then you can cut back the entire plant or just thin it taking some stems down to the ground. If you click on "Forums" at the top of the page you will get a list of the various subject groups and can start a shrub management thread to ask for help.
Re your forsythia, yes - they can take quite harsh pruning, and you'd just have to make that decision re pruning now and losing flowers, or pruning to keep it secure. You can also do the 'removing a third of branches' method, but it will do it good to be rejuvenated regardless of the method you choose.
