When it’s time to prune, touch base with experts
We go to hairstylists to groom our hair with shaping and styling, and the same idea applies to trees and shrubbery that need pruning to enhance their size and shape. Plus, pruning and thinning improves the overall health and appearance of trees and shrubs.
It has been our experience that you’ll get the best advice about when and how to prune from a local lawn and garden center, where they can tell you the most advantageous time to prune and thin specific trees and plants native to your area.
If you hire a landscape service to prune and groom a small tree and a couple of bushes, you can expect to pay $103 for the job.
If you have a pair of pruning shears and loppers, you can do the job.
Even figuring the cost of shears and loppers, which will run about $45, you’ll save 56 percent on the first pruning project. Then you will have the tools and the next job won’t cost you anything.
A pruning shear, also called a hand-held snipper, is the tool of choice for cutting away excess or dried ends of woody plants and shrubs. The tool’s convenient size makes it easy to maneuver in the tight confines of an overgrown bush or shrub.
The more heavy-duty long handles of a pair of loppers produce a strong cutting force at the blade, so they ease the job of trimming and cutting heavy branches. Switch to loppers when pruning shears can’t penetrate a thick branch. Each tool has its strengths, and when you use them together they’ll get the job done year in and year out.