#How To
How to Keep Your Hedges Healthy in Summer
THREE TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Triggered by a combination of the soil warming up, longer days and summer rains, Summer is one of the key seasons for hedge growth.
So how do you maintain healthy hedges while they grow? Here are a few top tips as shared by STIHL expert professional partners, the horticultural team at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.
TIP 1
- Apply fertiliser and regular watering. This encourages growth, particularly as the days get longer and temperatures climb.
TIP 2
- Trim throughout the warmer months to promote vigorous and bushy plants. The rule of thumb is that you should undertake pruning after your plants have finished flowering.
Generally, the harder a plant is pruned the more vigorous the regrowth. In some instances, a hard prune is required to reinvigorate or reshape a plant.
TIP 3
- For natives, you will often get better results through regular light (or tip) pruning. This assists in creating more dense plants, more flowering potential and can often extend the life of short-lived species.
STAYING IN SHAPE: THE STIHL HSA 26
STIHL provide home gardeners and professionals with a range of easy-to-use, well-balanced and highly manoeuvrable battery, electric and petrol hedge trimmers, specifically engineered to trim and shape hedges efficiently and effectively, and deliver maximum control with minimum fuss.
One of the most popular STIHL trimmers due to its handy versatility, the lightweight and compact HSA 26 Battery Shrub Shears is the ideal tool for trimming and shaping evergreen hedges, shrubs, ornamental trees and lawn edges.
Providing gardeners with the choice of two brilliantly engineered cutting blades, swapping between shaping and trimming is easy with rapid, tool-free blade change.
The HSA 26 is also ideal for regular tip pruning of natives.
If your hedges are struggling, determining the cause is the first step in order to address the issue, which could be caused by anything from possum browsing, or disease due to extended dryness in the soil.
The extent of how recoverable a struggling hedge may be dependent on the species and how tolerant it is to being pruned back to older wood and branches. If the species is tolerant of a hard prune, then they are likely to respond well to this treatment and the hedge can easily be rejuvenated. This hard pruning ‘resets’ the hedge and as it regrows it can be clipped back into shape.
DRESSED TO TRIM: A PROTECTIVE CLOTHING CHECKLIST
Hedge trimmers have very sharp blades, so it’s still important to make sure you’re wearing the right kit when using a hedge trimmer.
- Wear sturdy shows with non-slip soles. Standard safety boots with a steel toe cap are ideal.
- You should also wear safety glasses – small cuttings and leaves can easily cause damage if they come into contact with your eyer.
- Heavy-duty, but well-fitting, work gloves made of durable material should also be worn.
- Ear protection should be worn when working with petrol or electric trimmers, but are not needed with STIHL Battery Hedge Trimmers.
TRIMMER TLC: KEEPING YOUR TRIMMERS IN TOP CONDITION
Your hedge trimmers will stay sharper longer, cut more precisely and cause keep plants damage and disease free, if you keep them properly maintained. STIHL make caring for your hedge trimmers easy with a range of specifically designed cleaners and lubricants that clean and protect your blades and keep your gearboxes humming sweetly.
STIHL Superclean Resin Solvent
The resin from trimmed hedges, bushes and ornamentals can quicky compromise the quality of your hedge trimmer blades if not attended to after each gardening session.
But doing so is easy with STIHL Superclean Resin Solvent.
Simply spray your cutting attachments after every use, and then activate the hedge trimmer blades briefly. This works the solvent through the blades to dissolve resin and protect from corrosion while lubricating your blades.
STIHL multi-purpose grease
Formulated for hedge trimmer gears, oxidation-stable and water-resistant STIHL Multilub Multi-Purpose Grease adheres excellently to metal surfaces, providing extremely good protection from wear and corrosion, even in extreme summer or winter temperatures. High resistance to aging also enables long-lasting lubricating properties.
STIHL high-performance gear lubricant
Developed specifically for application across high-speed gearboxes of clearing saws and trimmers, STIHL Superlub High-Performance Gear Lubricant perceptibly reduces wear and provides increased protection from corrosion. Its excellent penetrative powers, along with good adhesive properties, ensures grease reaches all lubricating points, even in small confined gearboxes.
To discover the full range of high-performance, power and precision STIHL Hedge Trimmers, trimmer care products and a wide range of protective wear, visit your local STIHL dealer.
STIHL is a proud major partner and the exclusive supplier of garden power tools to the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Click here to learn more about this partnership.
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