From the ⅓ pruning rule to the 1 foot pruning rule, there are so many recommendations out there intended to help homeowners prune their hedges. However, there’s one task you need to complete before you can even begin the process — cut holes in the tops of your hedges first. Even if you have low-maintenance hedges, this tip can still help them thrive. While speaking exclusively to House Digest, Sara Bendrick, owner of Sarita Landscapes Inc., explained why the task is beneficial. “Cutting windows in your hedges before heavy pruning can be a great way to ensure that light gets into the lower branches and encourages growth,” she revealed.

Bendrick also detailed what may happen if you heavily prune your hedges without cutting windows into the tops of them first. “If you hedge your hedges and you want to cut them back heavily, you might be in for a big surprise when you do a heavy trimming and find only empty branches,” she shared. “Some shrubs can handle this and grow back… they will look awful for a while, but [for] some shrubs, this deep trimming might be too dramatic and they might not recover.” Clearly, this tip makes a difference in the results a homeowner is able to achieve when caring for their hedges. You may want to start cutting holes in the tops of your hedges if you’ve been struggling with getting the lower branches to grow. Luckily, this task is pretty easy and shouldn’t add too much extra work to your yard care routine.

There’s a method you should apply in order to cut holes into the tops of your hedges properly. While speaking exclusively to House Digest, Bendrick explained just how to do this. “You can use hand pruners to snip back the [dense] hedge leaves on the surface, anywhere from 6″ to 12″ or more all over the hedges,” she shared. “So now when you’re ready to do the heavy pruning back you’ll have new growth already that is ready to take over on a smaller scale.”

Keep in mind that you need to complete this process quite a while before heavily pruning your hedges completely. According to Bendrick, you should create the windows a few weeks to a few months beforehand. Make sure to plan for this ahead of time so that you can remain on schedule to complete the process the right way. When it’s finally time to move forward with heavy pruning, be sure to avoid common pruning mistakes like using dull equipment or pruning in extreme weather.

Just as with any hedge pruning method, cutting windows into the tops of your hedges has its pros and cons. Bendrick detailed these while speaking exclusively to House Digest. “[Pros] are encouraging new growth deeper in the shrub and it can help your shrub bounce back quicker after a future deep cutting back to resize it,” she explained. “[Cons] are it might look a little odd for a bit depending on how many windows or how big they are in a shrub.”

The expert went on to offer some advice on how to get your hedges to grow fast. As you may already know, pruning helps with this, as it encourages dense growth. You can observe this throughout the outside of your hedges. Bendrick also shared that the window pruning trick can help you achieve faster interior growth. The expert recommends applying organic fertilizer to your hedges to speed up growth as well. Finally, she warned that you should make sure to apply enough water, as failing to do so can slow hedge growth down.