STARTING a border from scratch is easy, while maintaining new plantings by regular hoeing for weed control or using a weed-suppressing membrane is also pretty straightforward. The tricky bit is when plantings of a perennial nature begin to grow too large for the space available for them and others are worn out.
Woody shrubs can be pruned back and a good general rule is to prune after flowering, possibly taking out one third of the old branches each year, so that by the third year a shrub has been completely renewed. There are exceptions, though. Brooms (Cytisus) and lavender (Lavendula), for example, do not take kindly to being pruned back into old wood and are better lightly trimmed after flowering.
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