Garden Tidy-Ups

The full reset

When a garden has been left long enough that nobody knows where to start, this is what a reset covers.

• Everything cut back to reveal what's actually there — you generally can't plan a garden you can't see
• Weeds pulled at the root rather than topped, particularly the runners that come straight back from a fragment
• Dead and diseased material out
• Hedges and shrubs brought back into shape over one or two visits depending how far gone they are
• Bed edges recut so the line between lawn and garden reads clean
• Overhanging branches taken back off paths, roofs, gutters and the neighbour's side
• Mulch topped up to a decent depth, which does more to keep weeds down than anything else
• The lot loaded and taken away, including what was already piled behind the shed

Hedges and pruning

A hedge that's been trimmed badly for years develops a hard woody shell with nothing green inside it, and once it's like that, cutting into the old wood leaves a bare patch that can take a couple of seasons to fill. Some species never come back from it at all.

So on an overgrown hedge we bring it back over more than one visit rather than taking it hard in one go, and we taper it slightly narrower at the top so light gets to the bottom. That's the reason so many hedges are bare and leggy at the base — they've been cut square or wider at the top, and the bottom hasn't seen sun in years.

On ornamental and fruiting plants, timing matters more than technique. Pruning a spring-flowering shrub in autumn removes next season's flowers. Citrus, roses, hydrangeas and natives all want different treatment at different times. If you want a plant to do something in particular, tell us and we'll prune for it rather than just tidying it.

Weeds, honestly

Nobody eliminates weeds from a garden permanently, and anyone who tells you they can is selling something. What you're doing is keeping the pressure down cheaply.

The things that actually help: pulling at the root while the ground's damp rather than topping, getting them before they seed, and mulch at a decent depth. Mulch is the single most cost-effective weed control there is and most gardens around here are running about half the depth they should be.

Some weeds need more than a pull. Nutgrass, oxalis, kikuyu runners coming under a fence and anything with a deep taproot will regrow from what's left behind. We'll tell you where you're in that territory and what the realistic options are, including doing nothing.

Before a sale or an inspection

Timing is the thing people get wrong. A garden done a month before the photos has already grown out by the time the photographer arrives, and mulch laid the day before looks fresh in a photo in a way it won't a fortnight later.

For a listing, the week of the photos is right. For a routine rental inspection, a few days before. If you tell us the date we'll work backwards from it.

The items that shift a first impression most are the front of the property, the entry path, and whether the bed edges are crisp. A tidy front and a scruffy back yard reads far better than the reverse, so if the budget is limited that's where it goes first.