HEDGES can be the making of a garden, providing clear boundaries and acting as a windbreak and a handsome green backdrop to other plants.

A neglected hedge, on the other hand, can be a total eyesore, especially if it’s bare at the base or totally out of shape due to lack of pruning.

Late winter is an ideal time to cut back tough hedges such as beech, pyracantha, yew – which is the only conifer which will re-shoot from old wood – holly and hawthorn. They can be cut back hard to rejuvenate and reshape them and re-growth will start almost immediately. If you feed the hedge the growing season before, it should come back healthy and vigorous.

As a rule, it’s best to prune deciduous types in late winter and evergreens in spring. Feed and mulch in mid-spring and water during dry weather. Fill in unsightly gaps in the hedge with smaller plants and avoid trying to match a plant with the height of an existing hedge.

Be warned, though, that newcomers have to compete for food, moisture and light with the bigger, established plants, which is why the failure rate with in-filling is pretty high.

Box hedging won’t be harmed by hard pruning. A bush can be drastically cut back in spring, but to avoid large bare patches, stagger the work over two to three seasons.

Use sharp secateurs to prune holly hedges and evergreen cherry laurels, as the large glossy leaves turn brown and look terrible if they’re chopped in half with shears.

Use a sharp bow saw for thick branches, loppers for those a little smaller and secateurs for twiggy growth.

If you’re cutting back an old yew hedge, do it so that it’s broader at the bottom than at the top, which will result in it being less vulnerable to snow damage and, more importantly, that the growth at the bottom of the hedge receives as much light as the growth at the top, so it’s not likely to become bare again in the future.

To make the job easier, lay hessian or sheets of polythene at the base of the hedge if you are trimming a lot off it, to gather the clippings.

If a conifer hedge has become bare at the base, consider growing other plants in front of it to cover the gaps, such as euonymus fortunei Emerald ‘n’ Gold or Emerald Gaiety, which are perfect for shady spots and will brighten up the plain green foliage of a hedge.

Other plants which will grow happily at the base of a hedge include spurge, euphorbia, alchemilla, while in sunny spots you may be better off with lavender, herbs such as rosemary and sage and berberis.

Consider, however, exactly what effect you are after.

Filling in gaps may all be very well, but unless you are careful what you choose and space out fillin plants evenly, your boundary could end up looking like a bit of a dog’s dinner.

Cutting a hedge back hard should be done in stages, as it takes quite a lot out of the plant. In year one the top and one side can be pruned, the opposite side in year two.

Start from the bottom and work upwards and, if possible, shred the clippings and put them on the compost heap as you go along.

The top of the hedge should be trimmed last. It may look drastic but don’t worry, it will recover.

Once your hedge has reached its required height and thickness, it should only need clipping once a year in August, or in the case of fast-growing hedges like leylandii, in May as well.

Whatever method of hedgepruning you take, look out for birds’ nests and don’t disturb any you come across.