Hedge Trimming in Cranbourne

Hedge Trimming in Cranbourne: Local Conditions and What That Means for Your Property

Hedging in Cranbourne is young, fast and mostly evergreen. The estate planting palette is dominated by lilly pilly, murraya, viburnum and westringia, put in as screening between neighbouring blocks that sit close together, and on sand with adequate water these grow quickly. Murraya and lilly pilly both put on enough growth in a warm season to need three cuts a year to hold a crisp face, and lilly pilly in this area is worth watching for psyllid, which pits and distorts new leaf and looks worse immediately after a trim because the damaged growth is what gets exposed. Trimming just after a flush has hardened, rather than during it, gives a cleaner result. The sandy profile creates a specific problem for hedges that is easy to misread as a trimming issue: patchy, thin sections low down on a screen are usually a water and nutrient problem rather than a light problem, because sand simply does not hold enough of either to support dense growth at the base. Correcting that needs soil improvement and a wetting agent, not a harder cut. Wind is the third factor. On exposed estate boundaries the windward face of a young hedge grows more slowly and can burn at the tips, so cutting both faces to the same line every time gradually pushes the hedge out of square. We cut to the plant rather than to the string line on exposed boundaries until the screen is established.