The Scotsman

Hedge your bets with nd the right trimmer

Check the weight and comfort of trimmers and hedge type before you start, writes Hannah Stephenson

Whether you’ve a lowgrowing lavender or a tall laurel, tidying up your hedges after summer requires the right tools for the job.

So, which will you need?

“A key factor is to look at the weight of the product you’re potentiall­y going to buy,” says Ryan Patterson, product manager at Husqvarna.

“If you’ve got a really high hedge, you don’t want something that’s going to be really heavy. Battery-powered tools at the moment are the biggest thing because they offer that opportunit­y to use a lighter product.”

Cordless trimmers, which use rechargeab­le lithium-ion batteries, are lighter and quieter than petrol equivalent­s and don’t restrict your range like corded versions.

“It’s always worth investigat­ing the run times (of battery models) and then taking into account how that will affect the weight of the battery,” says Patterson. Be aware too, that more powerful batteries will be heavier.

“Also, make sure the blade is long enough,” he continues. “If you have a longer hedge you’re going to want a bigger blade, but if you’ve a small hedge a small blade will work really well.”

For lavender and other lowgrowing hedges

Lavender can be pruned back in late summer after flowering and, depending on the amount you have to cut, you might just need some good quality shears, or a grass trimmer might even do the job.

Make sure you don’t cut into old wood when you are pruning your lavender, and if you want a neat, tight, even finish you may have to get out your secateurs.

Battery-operated choices of hand-held shrub and grass shears are also suitable and are widely available from companies including Bosch, Flymo, Husqvarna, STIHL and EGO, providing easy-to-manage battery-operated doubleblad­ed trimmers to make light work of smaller jobs.

Many come with interchang­eable blades which allow you to trim lawn edges with the same machine.

Flymo 18V batteries are also part of the Power4all Alliance, which means they can be shared across all the Flymo, Bosch and Gardena cordless tools. Alternativ­ely, stick with one brand, such as EGO, whose batteries are interchang­eable within its own range of cordless tools.

For medium-sized hedges

Don’t go for an entry-level small hedge trimmer because it won’t be able to handle the job. Make sure you choose a dualblade model so you can sweep in different directions, is long enough to tackle large areas and the battery has enough run time to complete the job, or you’ll have to take a significan­t break to recharge it.

When choosing your machine, consider those which have a rotating handle, which makes life easier when you are tackling the top of a hedge as well as the side of it.

For a tall hedge

This is where telescopic tools come in handy, especially if you don’t want to climb up a ladder. They’re attached to a pole that allows you to raise the height of your hedge trimmer. Some poles have interchang­eable attachment­s such as pruning saws for other jobs, too.

“You can get a lot of hedge trimmers that are not only telescopic so you can adjust the height quite easily, but also allow you to adjust the angle, so you can shape bigger hedges and angle them to at 90 degrees to allow you to cut the top of the hedge,” he says.

What about traditiona­l, nonpowered hand tools?

“Trimming, say, a low lavender hedge is much easier to do with a pair of hand shears,” says Leigh Hunt, RHS principal horticultu­ral advisor. “The key thing is that they are kept sharp. Use a sharpening tool before you do a lot of pruning.”

He says that gardeners may feel more of a connection, a sense of what they are doing, with traditiona­l hand tools.

“When you close the blade you will feel that bit of resistance of the stems, which means you’re getting immediate feedback of where you are cutting. There’s much less chance of cutting off an important bit or scooping a lump out of your hedge.”

Remember the birds

Watch out for any sign of birds in your hedge, as it’s an offence to intentiona­lly damage or destroy active birds’ nests in the UK. The RSPB recommends delaying hedge-trimming until after the main nesting season (March-september) but as long as no active nests are moved or damaged, you can legally cut vegetation year-round. So check your hedge for active nests before you start.

Battery-powered

tools at the moment are the

biggest thing