li-lacking
In search of kind gardener souls to offer a tip with these poor lilacs! They've had some bad prunes in their time. I'd like to help them out! The art of pruning is still pretty new to me, and I am a bit stumped (har har har) in this case.
What we have: Several 8-foot-tall 20-year-old lilacs in a line along a fence. They pretty much just consist of thick stumps and hundreds of shoots (1 to 3 years old). Here's a very scientific diagram to demonstrate!
What we want: A hedgey kind of shape, for neighbor shielding. Ideally 5-10 feet tall (taller than the fence but shorter than the gutters, because they love to clog the drainpipes). I'd love to teach them to grow in a flat-ish line (as opposed to spreading out all over everywhere), so they aren't creating quite as much shade as they are now. But above all, I'd love for these trees to be happy and healthy. I want to take over pruning duties from now on, because the neighbor lops them all off to 4 feet every year when they creep into his yard. Hence the current shape.
Help? Feel free to point me to a google search or an article or something if that's less annoying than spelling it out for me. :) Thank you!
What we have: Several 8-foot-tall 20-year-old lilacs in a line along a fence. They pretty much just consist of thick stumps and hundreds of shoots (1 to 3 years old). Here's a very scientific diagram to demonstrate!
What we want: A hedgey kind of shape, for neighbor shielding. Ideally 5-10 feet tall (taller than the fence but shorter than the gutters, because they love to clog the drainpipes). I'd love to teach them to grow in a flat-ish line (as opposed to spreading out all over everywhere), so they aren't creating quite as much shade as they are now. But above all, I'd love for these trees to be happy and healthy. I want to take over pruning duties from now on, because the neighbor lops them all off to 4 feet every year when they creep into his yard. Hence the current shape.
Help? Feel free to point me to a google search or an article or something if that's less annoying than spelling it out for me. :) Thank you!