Add Topiary to Your Garden

If you want to add a unique touch to your landscape, add topiary to your garden. Topiary is a plant that has been shaped into a geometric form. These creations can be interesting and lots of fun to create and maintain.

To add topiary to your garden, you can prune an existing shrub into a unique shape or you can create a sphagnum moss filled wire frame and plant plugs in it. For a first project, it is best to start with an existing plant and develop the wire frame topiaries as you learn more about this gardening art. If you choose to use an existing plant, select a juniper, boxwood, arborvitae, yew, myrtle or fig that will lush and has no large gaps.

A simple topiary to create is a spiral shape made from an existing shrub. Wind a length of ribbon in a spiral pattern around the plant, making sure the circle are about 18 to 24 inches apart. Using the ribbon as a guide and leaving two inches on each side of the ribbon, prune the remaining foliage all the way to the trunk of the plant. You'll need really sharp pruning shears to do this easily.

Other easy topiary shapes to add to your garden are triangles, spheres, pompoms or squares. Choose a plant that has sufficient growth to lend itself well to the shape you select. Place tape on the plant if you wish to help as a pruning guide for cutting. Then start pruning away the parts of the plant that are outside the desired shape.

Once you have the shape you desire, you'll need to trim your topiary as new growth appears. Usually once every two weeks or once a month will be the pruning schedule. Don't let the topiary become overgrown or you will lose the original shape. Maintenance is simple because each pruning will require removal of only a little foliage.

If you have patience, you'll find that once you add topiary to your garden, the plant will fill in and look wonderful. You'll get lots of compliments from your friends. If you find that you really enjoy creating topiary, you might want to try your hand at creating an indoor topiary. Use the same process but select an indoor specimen that is lush and thick. Then prune it into shape and maintain it using the same techniques.

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