Well worth a watch if you enjoy pruning "How to Prune a Large Cherry Laurel" : m.th-cam.com/video/q0KUkIIR8mk/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUTSG93IHRvIHBydW5lIGxhdXJlbA%3D%3D
Hey Richard, you are most welcome they are such a versatile and underrated plant to have in the garden. A must have in any garden as their uses extend far more than just culinary 😁👍
Hey Teddy good question, I have had it in the past from doing a lot of garden clearing jobs where you are grabbing, pulling and digging out weeds, shrubs and trees and doing lots of heavy cut backs. Since then I try to vary my gardening jobs each day or week so am not putting constant strain and stress on the same part of my body. So one day hedge cutting the next hand shearing you use different muscles and tendons with these two tasks, there will be some cross over but the best thing is not to be tense when you work don't hold the tool really tight be relaxed in the arms and hands then it becomes more effortless. Hope this helps 👍
Beautiful healthy looking trees!! We have 3 youngish bay trees. We took a bit off them last year and dried leaves for cooking. They are however growing up and not out. It's summer here atm. Would you recommend pruning now or wait till winter. I really need them to spread out to create a screening hedge. Your advice would be much appreciated:)
Thanks for the comment. So it sounds like you need to prune the top out of them to encourage the outward growth. If it's not too hot you can do a light prune in the summer (follow up with a good water and feed) taking the top stems down (stems with a width of up to 1inch to allow time to heal and recover before winter). Or if the stems you want to remove are thicker I would do this in the spring when the cold weather has passed to prevent die back. Hope this helps 😁👍
Been hedgecutting for around 30 years for a living. Shears give the best finish, but hedgecutters are not the devil as many people seem to believe. In fact they are essential to the job! Clients pay me by the hour, and want a lot done for their money! Maybe i just work too hard and underprice myself?😮
Hey tgs, great to hear shears certainly do give a good sharp finish and very much agree hedge cutters are an essential piece of kit for bigger garden jobs. Yeah it's a hard one to judge you want to give a fair price to the customer and yourself it's worth having an honest chat with customers and saying what sort of finish do they want on their shrubs (hedgecutter finish or shears/secateurs) then you can give two prices and they then have more understanding on what hard work goes into the job. 😁👍
Great video, i have a bay hedge that has been left by previous owners and overgrown a path so needs cutting right back to the wood! I'm in the UK (South East). Will it be ok to cut it now (january), or should i wait until later in the year?
Hey Nick thanks for the comment. If your cutting back to the hard wood you should be ok to prune it back now just be mindful of the weather try and do it on a week with the temperature above 5 degrees. Make nice clean cuts back to a leaf node (the bump in the wood) as that will be where your new leaves will come from. Cut it back further than you want your end result to be as you have to allow for the new leaves in front of the bare wood to prevent it from overhanging the path. 😁👍
I am surprised how large these Bay Leaf trees are! What is the fully mature size of a Bay Leaf tree? I purchased some Bay Leaf plants in one gallon pots to grow and use the leaves for cooking. I have planted them maybe 2' from the chain-link fence. I can see these will clearly grow through the fence quite a bit. Which some neighbors would not appreciate, even if it is free herbs. So I need to know how wide these Bay Leaf branches will grow so I can relocate them now while they are still small.
Hey Richard yes it is surprising I am not sure but I have seen some at a good 20ft height. It's how you look after them though as you can see in this video one bay that is easily 15 years old I have kept it short in a topiary style. I would perhaps move them a bit further away from the chain link fence so you are able to reach around to cut the back away from the fence to prevent it growing to the neighbors. However it's totally dependent on the neighbor as I don't know anyone who would prefer an empty chain link fence over a bay shrub. A garden is for plants and wildlife 😅👍
Hi. I have a 4 - 5 foot bay that I would like to lower by 2 foot, what's the best time of year for doing this? I don't want to lose it as it's about 20 years old now and I use it in cooking 😊
Hey Louise thanks for your comment. You want to do this while it's dormant, which is during the winter months. I would recommend doing it at the very end of winter just coming into spring as the weather is slightly warmer and it will have a whole growing year to recover. Hope this helps 😁👍
Hello, so in your scenario it would depend on how tall you want your hedge (similar in the later part of the video I prune a large bay hedge). When they are developing you want to do a light prune simply cutting the tips of the plant all around to encourage it to thicken up leaving the leaders to grow to the desired height then topping them once they have reached the height you want your hedge to be. Hope this helps 😁👍
Well worth a watch if you enjoy pruning "How to Prune a Large Cherry Laurel" :
m.th-cam.com/video/q0KUkIIR8mk/w-d-xo.html&pp=ygUTSG93IHRvIHBydW5lIGxhdXJlbA%3D%3D
@8:07 thanks for confirming that these beautiful bushes are also an herb and are really what is used for cooking.
Hey Richard, you are most welcome they are such a versatile and underrated plant to have in the garden. A must have in any garden as their uses extend far more than just culinary 😁👍
Very helpful and instructive video. Awesome.
Thanks so much glad you found this helpful 😁👍
Excellent vid, really good tips for different methods of trimming.
Thank you very much great to hear it came across well 😁👍
Great job thanks 👍👍
Your very welcome 😁👍
Do you ever get tennis elbow trimming
Hey Teddy good question, I have had it in the past from doing a lot of garden clearing jobs where you are grabbing, pulling and digging out weeds, shrubs and trees and doing lots of heavy cut backs. Since then I try to vary my gardening jobs each day or week so am not putting constant strain and stress on the same part of my body. So one day hedge cutting the next hand shearing you use different muscles and tendons with these two tasks, there will be some cross over but the best thing is not to be tense when you work don't hold the tool really tight be relaxed in the arms and hands then it becomes more effortless. Hope this helps 👍
Beautiful healthy looking trees!! We have 3 youngish bay trees. We took a bit off them last year and dried leaves for cooking. They are however growing up and not out. It's summer here atm. Would you recommend pruning now or wait till winter. I really need them to spread out to create a screening hedge. Your advice would be much appreciated:)
Following
Thanks for the comment. So it sounds like you need to prune the top out of them to encourage the outward growth. If it's not too hot you can do a light prune in the summer (follow up with a good water and feed) taking the top stems down (stems with a width of up to 1inch to allow time to heal and recover before winter). Or if the stems you want to remove are thicker I would do this in the spring when the cold weather has passed to prevent die back. Hope this helps 😁👍
Been hedgecutting for around 30 years for a living. Shears give the best finish, but hedgecutters are not the devil as many people seem to believe. In fact they are essential to the job! Clients pay me by the hour, and want a lot done for their money! Maybe i just work too hard and underprice myself?😮
Hey tgs, great to hear shears certainly do give a good sharp finish and very much agree hedge cutters are an essential piece of kit for bigger garden jobs. Yeah it's a hard one to judge you want to give a fair price to the customer and yourself it's worth having an honest chat with customers and saying what sort of finish do they want on their shrubs (hedgecutter finish or shears/secateurs) then you can give two prices and they then have more understanding on what hard work goes into the job. 😁👍
Great video, i have a bay hedge that has been left by previous owners and overgrown a path so needs cutting right back to the wood! I'm in the UK (South East). Will it be ok to cut it now (january), or should i wait until later in the year?
Hey Nick thanks for the comment. If your cutting back to the hard wood you should be ok to prune it back now just be mindful of the weather try and do it on a week with the temperature above 5 degrees. Make nice clean cuts back to a leaf node (the bump in the wood) as that will be where your new leaves will come from. Cut it back further than you want your end result to be as you have to allow for the new leaves in front of the bare wood to prevent it from overhanging the path. 😁👍
How to make this kind of tree get fuller ?
I am surprised how large these Bay Leaf trees are! What is the fully mature size of a Bay Leaf tree? I purchased some Bay Leaf plants in one gallon pots to grow and use the leaves for cooking. I have planted them maybe 2' from the chain-link fence. I can see these will clearly grow through the fence quite a bit. Which some neighbors would not appreciate, even if it is free herbs. So I need to know how wide these Bay Leaf branches will grow so I can relocate them now while they are still small.
Hey Richard yes it is surprising I am not sure but I have seen some at a good 20ft height. It's how you look after them though as you can see in this video one bay that is easily 15 years old I have kept it short in a topiary style. I would perhaps move them a bit further away from the chain link fence so you are able to reach around to cut the back away from the fence to prevent it growing to the neighbors. However it's totally dependent on the neighbor as I don't know anyone who would prefer an empty chain link fence over a bay shrub. A garden is for plants and wildlife 😅👍
Hi. I have a 4 - 5 foot bay that I would like to lower by 2 foot, what's the best time of year for doing this? I don't want to lose it as it's about 20 years old now and I use it in cooking 😊
Hey Louise thanks for your comment. You want to do this while it's dormant, which is during the winter months. I would recommend doing it at the very end of winter just coming into spring as the weather is slightly warmer and it will have a whole growing year to recover. Hope this helps 😁👍
@@gardenerstale thank you 😊
❤
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Ok but i have small plants and i want them to form a hedge. How to o do that so i dont have the lollipop look of plain stem?
Hello, so in your scenario it would depend on how tall you want your hedge (similar in the later part of the video I prune a large bay hedge). When they are developing you want to do a light prune simply cutting the tips of the plant all around to encourage it to thicken up leaving the leaders to grow to the desired height then topping them once they have reached the height you want your hedge to be. Hope this helps 😁👍
Hi, Great video, how old is the tree.
Hey thanks so much, it's nearly 20 years old in total, as it was two small 7 year old lollipop standard bay trees when they were first planted. 👍