Winter Hedge Trimming - Portugese Laurel 

Thanks very much, really do appreciate the encouragement.

Feeling sore from a hard day's work is a satisfying pain all the same! The battery secateurs are a great job. The biggest advantage is that they make pruning single handed. You can hold a branch, snip it with the other hand, then throw it down, or feed it straight into the chipper. Really does speed pruning up massively. Not cheap though.

Hiya!! It has been crazy weather, but we're still here and working away. Just haven't done much filming recently. Purining hydrangeas is like cooking eggs...everyone has their own preferred way of doing it...and they're all adamant their way is the right way! I tend to see what the customer wants. I suspect its more a local climate sort of thing, if its particularly cold/frosty, I'd maybe leave the heads on til spring. If its warmer, I'd deadhead once the colour has gone out of them (If customer permits). I have a general rule in gardening that if its dead its normally best to remove it, but I do think general theory is the dead heads can protect the fresh growth from hard frosts. I liken them to rhododendrons in pruning in that they bloom on last years buds. So if you go too severe on the pruning now, you'll probably cut off the buds and loose next year's colour. If its well out of shape or too big - sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do! So yeah, I don't think there's really a right way or a wrong way. If its too big, prune it hard, if its a nice shape and size, then just deadhead or lightly prune now if warm climate, spring if hard winters is my general take on it. Again - I'm no expert, on either hydrangeas or cooking eggs, but that's just my take to see if it helps.

Oh, and thanks for sticking with me and keeping me going!

@@moweroutdoors lol thanks for that great advice👍 I had this in my garden when I moved in 3 years ago and it looked sorry for itself. But had taken on a new shape and looks better. It has had a light pruning in feb/March so perhaps that’s it. I will keep an eye on the weather lol. Anyway all the best in what you do and if you ever come to England I can cook you an egg 😂

@@traceywoodall6937 Hope it's a greasy fried egg rather than a fancy poached egg! If you look under the caps/heads and look for a bud, that's where it'll come from next season. So you can cut down to that to shape, or if you want to go drastic, you can cut back harder, but loose the colour on that stem for a year. Some folks I think do a few of the leggier stems, cut them down and leave the rest, to progressively work with it and not loose the colour. Looking to buy a new (New to me) jeep, so might be nipping over to England. Will forward you my findings on English cuisine!!

@@moweroutdoors lol thank you I will know what to look for now. I only do greasy fried eggs in clean oil so it’s lovely n white 😊. I’m originally from Black Country in the midlands so only the un healthiest and tastiest will do lol 👍

Hi, sorry for the delay. We cover more or less the West coast of Strangford lough. So pretty much Ards to Downpatrick and then over West towards Ballynahinch and Carryduff. If its a full days work don't mind going a bit further. Congratulations on the new house, happy to give a bit of advice if I'm able (I don't claim to be an expert at anything!) and if you need a hand will certainly have a chat about that too.

How do I contact you ?

@@auldy1984 You can drop me an email on moweroutdoors@hotmail.com and I'll get in touch. Thanks very much.