An Introduction to Professional Pruning & Trimming for Small Trees & Shrubs

Do you have unruly shrubs that are giving you headaches? We understand that this is a common landscape gripe.

Keeping the ornamental trees and shrubs around your home trim and tidy is important when it comes to the overall aesthetics of your property. It can take very little time at all for shrubs and small trees to begin to look overgrown and messy and this can really detract from curb appeal.

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• What's the Difference Between Shrub Pruning & Shrub Trimming?
• What's the Best Time of Year to Prune Plants?
• What Tools Are Needed to Prune Trees & Shrubs?
• Comparing DIY and Professional Shrub Pruning
• How Much Do Professional Plant Pruning Plans Cost?
• Is Professional Shrub Pruning Worth the Cost?
• Choosing Landscape Maintenance in Northern VA

While you might have handled these tasks on your own before, professional plant pruning, particularly when you’re able to get on a regular plan, has a tremendous amount of value in terms of making sure this task is routinely completed…and completed correctly!

There’s actually a lot more involved in tree and shrub care than homeowners tend to realize.

In this article, we’ll dive into everything you should know about plant trimming plans, including what you can anticipate will be done and how much it will cost.

What's the Difference Between Shrub Pruning & Shrub Trimming?

The terminology in tree and shrub care can be confusing. While the terms “trimming” and “pruning” are often used interchangeably, they aren’t exactly the same thing.

Both trimming and pruning involve removing shrub growth. But trimming refers to removing the tips of shrub branches to clean up its overall appearance, while pruning is more of a strategic approach that focuses on removing dead, dying, or diseased branches to improve the health of the plant.

Both trimming and pruning have value, and both are approaches that we employ in tree and shrub care. We usually reserve trimming for plants like hedges and boxwoods that homeowners want to keep manicured.

While pruning is a bit more strategic, it does also contribute to the overall aesthetics and appearance of your plants (and can also help to keep them nicely shaped).

What's the Best Time of Year to Prune Plants?

One of the most important factors of tree and shrub pruning, which homeowners sometimes overlook, is the timing. There can be different “best times” to prune different plants. It all depends on the species.

For instance, if you prune a flowering shrub, such as an azalea, at the wrong time, you may prevent it from blooming. Considering that an azalea typically only provides three spectacular weeks of bloom time, you could essentially ruin that shrub for the season.

In addition to impacting your shrub’s ability to bloom, improper pruning can also lead to insect or disease concerns. While certain shrubs should not be aggressively pruned, others can tolerate it. Understanding how to trim shrubs really comes down to plant identification.

Unfortunately, this is more difficult than a lot of people realize.

What Tools Are Needed to Prune Trees & Shrubs?

In addition to understanding the timing of pruning, you should also understand what tools are needed. Believe it or not, this can make a big difference in your results.

First and foremost, it’s imperative that your tools are sharp. This is one of the hassles of DIY pruning as you may not know where to go to get your tools sharpened or you may not feel like standing in a long line to do so.

You also have to be sure that you’ve selected the right tool for the right shrub. While some homeowners, and even some landscapers, want to use gas or electric-powered shears on everything, many shrubs require hand trimming with a precise instrument, or you could risk damage.

Having the right tools is key to every job. Your trees and shrubs can be damaged or even killed with the wrong pruning practices. It's important to know the tools and techniques that are best-suited to the plants in your landscape.

Comparing DIY and Professional Shrub Pruning

The biggest considerations in DIY pruning (vs. hiring a pro) is understanding what you’re doing and finding the time to do it.

While we’d never claim that pruning is rocket science, it can be more involved than homeowners realize. Factors like the ones mentioned above (proper timing and tools) can make a big difference in your results. And, it’s possible that you could make a mistake and harm your tree or shrub.

In addition, people often don’t realize how time-consuming landscaping tasks like these can be. They think they’ll use a free weekend to handle all of their pruning and then life gets busy. Since pruning does need to be performed pretty regularly in order to be beneficial, homeowners commonly fall behind.

These are some reasons why people end up choosing professional pruning plans and letting go of the worries.

How Much Do Professional Plant Pruning Plans Cost?

Professional plant pruning plans start at $65 per month. That would be for a small townhome.

The minimum for a pruning plan with Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape is twice a year, but this is not often enough for most properties. The sweet spot for pruning is every other month. When you sign up for a pruning plan, this becomes automatic. You don’t have to remember to call your lawn care provider because you’ll already be on the schedule.

The truth is, you don’t want to wait until your plants are in really bad shape to be pruned. For one, you’ll have to deal with the mess until a landscaper can get out. But this will also mean that a lot needs to be pruned off at once, which really isn’t healthy for the plant. Pruning less of the plant but more frequently is by far the best for its overall health.

In fact, shrubs grow thicker when you prune more regularly. Frequent prunes make slight “injuries” to the plant, which forces it to put its energy into growing (to recover). In turn, this helps thicken up your shrubs.

Another benefit to pruning more often is that it helps keep the plants looking more natural and less obvious that they’ve been pruned. It’s a lot like getting a haircut. It would be a pronounced difference—long then suddenly short. But regular pruning maintains more of a consistent, attractive look.

Is Professional Shrub Pruning Worth the Cost?

We appreciate that you want to be a wise consumer and avoid wasting your hard-earned money. But important tree and shrub care tasks like pruning need to be done to maintain the value and integrity of your landscape.

If you can perform tree and shrub pruning (and perform it properly), that’s fine. But the truth is, many homeowners wind up making pruning mistakes or fail to keep up with it, and end up having to spend more money in the long run to make up for that.

That’s why we tell people that pruning plans are like investing in the longevity of your landscape. And in our opinion, that’s definitely worth it!

The other nice thing about a pruning plan is that it takes all the guesswork out of the equation. When you wait to call a landscaper when things look bad, it might be too late to get into their rotation.

Here are a few important things to keep in mind about a pruning plan:

• If you have our plan, you’ll have priority scheduling during peak season (which means less wait and better prices).
• If you have our plan, you won’t even have to worry about who will do the work, how much it will cost, whether it will be done, or when it will be done. These things are already taken care of.
• If you have our plan, your yard won’t have a chance to get messy in the first place!

Choosing Landscape Maintenance in Northern VA

At the end of the day, we know that your landscape has many needs. Tree and shrub care tasks like pruning are just some of the things that need to be done to keep your property tidy…and to maintain its overall health and value.

Besides taking some major work off your plate, one of the benefits of hiring a professional landscaper is that they will know what services are most important and when (and how) they should be done. There is only so much time in a day, and chances are, you don’t want to spend it working in your yard. You want to know that your property is getting everything it needs from a pro.

At Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape, we not only have professional pruning plans but also plans for things like weeding and mulching, too. Since we know that every property is unique, we can actually come up with a customized landscape maintenance plan that suits your needs.

By choosing a landscaping professional who knows how to properly handle your shrub pruning, not only will you hand over the hassles associated with this service, but you’ll also wind up with superior results compared to what you might have been able to do on your own. That means you’ll wind up looking like the best property on the block.

No longer will you be embarrassed by your overgrown or messy shrubs. Instead, you’ll be proud to show off your yard!

Are you ready to ditch the worries associated with keeping your shrubs well-maintained? Get started today! Request a quote, get your customized plan and relax as you let us get to work.