Hedge renovations do not always look incredible right after the cut, it takes time for a plant to fill in, but there is beauty in the process. These before and after pictures are of a pittosporum hedge that was over 8 feet tall and brought down to just under 6 feet. The pittosporum was planted to block the driveway and parked cars, but after 5 years of not having much maintenance it had overgrown its purpose and created a feeling of a large wall in an intimate side garden.
The hedge was taken down to just under 6 feet. This still served the purpose of hiding cars but the hedge no longer had such a presence in the garden. From the outside there were peaks of the fruit trees above the hedge, creating curiosity and color from outside, and within the garden the trees had a larger presence in the garden. They were no longer dwarfed by the mass of green and were highlighted in the garden. Hedge renovations are a hard process and take time to fully regrow but they are an instant way to restore scale in a garden. Scale should never be overlooked, it is one of the main things that differentiate a garden from fallow nature. Each plant serves a different purpose in a garden and the focal plants, such as aesthetically pruned fruit trees, should not be drowned out by a structural hedge. Keeping a garden to scale is something that takes a critical eye and elevates everything in a garden.
Carmody and Sun 