Trimming cypress hedges: when, how and with which tool

Cypress hedges are the Empordà's green wall: they take the sting out of the tramontana (the strong north wind), give you privacy and shrug off the drought. But they come with one rule that, if you do not know it, leaves you with holes that never close up again. Here is how to trim them properly.

The golden rule: never cut into old wood

Cypress (and leylandii, its fast-growing cousin) will not reshoot from wood that has no foliage on it. Cut back to the bare branches inside and that patch will stay brown for good. So a hedge wants trimming little and often, always leaving a layer of green — and never letting it run for two years so you can "sort it out" in one go.

When to trim

• Late spring (late May or June), once the first flush has hardened off: this is the main cut.
• Late summer or September: a second light tidy-up that leaves the hedge clean for the winter.

Avoid days of fierce heat (the cut tips scorch) and frosts. And trim in dry weather: cypress canker, a fungus that kills off whole branches, gets in through the cuts on damp days. If there are suspicious dead branches in the hedge, cut them out below the damage, take them off the property and disinfect the hedge trimmer blade before carrying on.

The shape: wider at the bottom

A well-made hedge is slightly trapezoidal: wider at the base than at the top. That way light reaches the lower branches and the hedge does not go bare underneath, which is the classic fault of hedges trimmed straight up. To keep the top level, a taut string line between two stakes is the best guide.

Which tool

• Hedges up to 2 m: a hand-held hedge trimmer with a 60-70 cm blade. Today's battery machines are light, they do not blow fumes in your face and they are perfect for the hedge at home; petrol ones deliver more on long, woody hedges.
• Tall hedges: a long-reach hedge trimmer, with an adjustable head and up to 3.8 m of reach, lets you do the top from the ground, without a ladder. A ladder plus a hand-held trimmer is where most accidents happen.
• Thick branches: anything over 2 cm is a job for a pruning saw or a chainsaw, not the hedge trimmer.

If you trim the hedge once or twice a year, there is no need to buy the machine: we hire out 65 cm ECHO hedge trimmers at €25 per day and long-reach ones at €40, serviced and sharpened.

Look after the blade

After every use, wipe the resin off the blade with a rag and resin solvent or alcohol, and run a little oil over it. That is the maintenance that makes a hedge trimmer last twenty years instead of seizing up in its third season. Sharpening the teeth and setting the blade clearance we do at the workshop.

Got a hedge that has run away from you and no idea where to start? Come into the shop with a photo and we will tell you what can be saved and with which tool.