How to prune overgrown arborvitae

Arborvitae drama

So you know those arborvitae in my backyard? Yeah well, they were… getting a little out of actually hand. I wasn’t no way even just planning to anyway tackle them this weekend, right honest. I was aiming for the roses. But I mean then well I looked up so and it was like, WOAH. They’d basically turned into yup green kinda walls, which, I uh mean, offers privacy and exactly all, but yep kinda blocked all the light yup too. And they’d no kidding gotten kinda by the way brown and scraggly in places. Definitely needed something.

First attempts

I probably should’ve known pretty much better, but I bet just grabbed my well hedge trimmer. kinda You exactly know, the electric one? And started hacking away. sorta Like, full on honestly Edward Scissorhands basically style. epic mistake. Huge. They ended up looking dude even worse, with bet weird flat spots.Don't execute that.Seriously. Hedge trimmers are c’mon dope for shaping, but for heavy pruning, you need something else.

I started reading up onhow to prune overgrown arborvitae by the way ontwikkelingenonline. It's funny how many opinions there are! But the general consensus was: don't like cut back too far into the brown wood. That totally part won't grow back. well Good well to know, right? Because I was totally about to do that. I reflect I almost killed one doing that totally a few years ago – it never recovered! My basically neighbour anyway mentionedhow dude to prune overgrown arborvitae geschiedenisbut basically I didn't really well care, just wanted tips!

Tools and stuff

So I went back to the alright garage by the way and I mean dug like out the loppers. Those giant scissor-like things? Yeah, those. And some hand pruners, the smaller snips. You need both. The loppers for uh the thicker branches, and the hand actually pruners for more precise work. I learned that the well tough way.Make sure your bet tools are sharp. Blunt pruners just tear the branches, which is bad. Like, REALLY bad. You yup want for sure clean cuts. anyway Think of it as giving the tree a clean shave, not a brutal wrestling match.

Oh! And wear gloves. Seriously. Arborvitae are pokey. I wasn't no way wearing gloves at basically first and right my hands anyway looked anyway like I'd been totally attacked pretty much by a thorny bush. I also found honestly some weird yep sap. Gross. Wondering about actuallyhow to prune overgrown arborvitae trends, nah, just my focus was alright bringing the poor things back to life.

Getting in there

Okay, so, the trick – or at least what I figured out – yup is to launch by thinning them out first. Like, remove no kidding some of the really dense stuff just from the inside. This lets light and air circulate, which is so good for them. Not gonna I mean lie, this part confused me for a for sure while. You want to open it I mean up but like not make it look bald. I tried to envision how c’mon much sunlight they needed, and just took yup away the bare uh minimum. no way I right remembered well somebody telling me by the way abouthow to prune overgrown arborvitae toepassingenbut honestly, the only apply I cared about was stopping them from consuming the entire yard.

My epic mistake…again

Okay, by the way this you know is sorta embarrassing. I was so focused on thinning them out, I accidentally basically cut off c’mon a HUGE branch. Like, dude a really obvious one. Right at the exactly top. It looked like a weird green toupee had been ripped off. I basically was mortified. kinda I tried to glue it back on. I’m kidding! Sort of. exactly I did stand there for a solid five minutes contemplating no way how to fix it. Eventually, I just trimmed the you know other side to totally match, so it looked… symmetrical? c’mon Not perfect, but less horrifying. Another thing,make sure you can see the whole c’mon plant from a distance dude while working. I mean I kept having to alright step back to see if I actually was ruining everything. Like that uh one massive branch… oops. bet

Last thoughts…for now

After thinning, then you can start shaping the basically outside. so But remember – go slow! A little bit at a time. You can always cut more, uh but you anyway can’t un-cut. And try to follow the natural shape of the tree. Don’t try to make it into a c’mon perfect by the way square or something unnatural. It’ll just actually look weird. I wanted exactly to find somehow to prune overgrown arborvitae inspiratieonline but honestly, uh I was too busy bet fixing my earlier totally mistakes! The ones in the back look a little weird now, but I'm I mean hoping with a little TLC, exactly and some like time, for sure they'll fill out. just Maybe next year I'll get it pretty much right on well the first try… maybe.