Can you rejuvenate an overgrown garden using only the plants you already own?
In short: You don't always need a brand-new nursery order to transform your landscape. By using existing plants and strategic renovation pruning, you can revitalize a tired garden, improve flowering, and stimulate strong new growth without starting from scratch.
Transforming a landscape often relies more on clever management than total replacement. Landscape designer Jenn Nawada suggests that homeowners can use their existing plant collections, supplemented by only a few additions, to completely change the appearance of a house's foundation. This approach focuses on maximizing the potential of what is already present in the soil.
For shrubs that have become overcrowded or less productive due to a lack of regular maintenance, renovation pruning offers a solution. This technique involves making drastic cuts to stimulate vigorous new growth. While highly effective for many species, the process requires careful timing. For deciduous shrubs—those that lose their leaves in winter—the ideal window for renovation is between November and March. Evergreens require a more nuanced approach; they are best renovated in the spring, ideally waiting until just after they have finished flowering.
The method of pruning depends heavily on the plant's vigor. Robust shrubs can undergo a complete renovation in a single year, which involves cutting stems down to 10–20cm from the ground or to branches 20–45cm low down. However, if the plant's response to such heavy cutting is uncertain, a staged renovation over two or three years is safer. This staggered method involves removing dead or diseased shoots in the first year, cutting back remaining older stems by half in the second, and removing any remaining old stems by the third year.
While these techniques can breathe new life into a garden, they come with trade-offs. Aggressive pruning might cause a one or two-year reduction in blooms, especially for plants like Philadelphus or Camellia which bloom on growth from the prior year. Furthermore, gardeners must be cautious not to cut below the graft in grafted plants, as severe pruning might trigger growth from below the scion, which should then be removed.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: How to Transform Your Landscape Using Existing Plants | Ask This Old House
- Also: Renovating Overgrown Shrubs | RHS Advice
- Also: www.pbs.org — Ask This Old House | E8 | Regrade Lawn, Solid Core Doors | Ask This Old House | Season 24 | Episode 8
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