The final trim

What will you see when you look out your window, or walk through your garden, all Winter? It is time to do the trimming, results of which will last us until Spring....

Ok ok ok, I LOVE this time of year, and I LOVE the final trim (which in my head is ‘the final prune,’ but that is a different thing for a different time). This is the time of year that we stare at everything which we trim, or might need to trim, and evaluate its size, shape and form. How does it interact with the other plants around it, does the entire garden bed need reshaping… The absolute business end of garden planning.

Unlike other times of year, where you can hack the crap out of a lot of your plants, and they will regrow and forgive you, Autumn gently reminds you that anything you take off now is unlikely to forgive you until Spring, and, worse, in Spring, you can’t trim it much at all.

Given it is taking me three paragraphs to explain the situation, I have just realised that this post needs to be a two parter. Today, let’s look at the mechanics of the thing, and next week, let’s look at the practicalities. This is how I teach gardening as well- if you know the mechanics, you can extrapolate into the practicalities.

Some plants which, believe it or not, did recieve a trim a few months after planting: a series of Lavenders, creeping Thyme and Lomandra- the lavender was balled, and lower shoots removed, so that it would grow a bit more compact, and avoid fungal issues around the base.

Don’t I prune in Winter?

YES, structural prunes are for Winter, and usually for very carefully shaped plants like roses and specimen trees.

But NO, trimming (anything using hedge clippers, shears, hedge trimmers, lots of little cuts to reshape the outside of a plant) should be done in Autumn, and you should do it in such a way that the results will get you through to mid Spring.

We are now in the time of the Final Trim, the results of which will last you for almost 6 months of the year. After this time, you will want to avoid any significant trimming until the Spring rains stop.

Yes- you can keep trimming in Winter if you need to. But your plants will grow very slowly, and put up a shoot or two. If you trim carefully now, the plant will get a little bushy, and retain it’s shape, and look perfect all Winter.

So the shape that you trim your plants now, is the shape your plants will remain until late Spring. You will be looking at those plants, and their shape, until late Spring. This is why this trim is important, this is why I refer to it as the Final Trim.