to wonder if dh had to be quite as brutal when cutting back the bushes in the garden?

[emkana]

There's nothing left of them except a few stumps. He says that's how you do it. Is he right? They were massive before, it looks very sad now to just see those stumps.

Stumps?

No. He's not right.

hope he hasn't removed all your privacy.

hopefully they will grow back in spring

she's right, give them a feed in the spring and they will grow again

but do the pruning yourself next time

I could have written your post!
DH decided to prune attack the garden yesterday. When I came home and he proudly showed me his work I wanted to cry.
My beautiful climbimg rose has been hacked to within an inch of its life and everything else looks so forlorn.
I know it will grow back (and the truth is it was all overgrown) but at the moment it looks very sad.

I'm guilty of going a bit shears-crazy when I get the opportunity. MOST of the time things (that's how green fingered I'm not - I don't even call them plants ) grow back, sometimes with a vengeance, but it gives me a good opportunity to go and attack it all again

Obviously a man thing! I can't bear to let DH loose in our garden with the loppers/strimmer/trimmers etc. He is brutal!

I feel your pain! My DH is the same.

and at Milliways. I'm not a man.

My dh is the same ,i dont even like him mowing the lawn as if there is a flower bent over on to it ,he simply chops it off.he also last season pulled all my dahlias up,and my two new alstrameria plants ,he is useless in the garden.

LOL
Adore my dh after 30 years but have told him if he ever touches the lilac tree again, I'll divorce him!

i pruned a huge plant hiding my front door, i loved it,
i hate it now! so bare and ugly
i got carried away

Is there no-one else out there (female!) who's with me on this one? It's therapeutic and highly satisfying to just go snip-snap happy?

it is very therapeutic, i love it, just the after effects are so shocking

Hurrah for Slarty You can always blame your DH when friends / DC's parents come round, and hopefully he'll be too manly to own up to you doing it [runs and hides from the onslaught of aren't you sexist blahdiblah ;)

good idea bubba

Depends on what type of bush they are. Some you need to hack right back or they end up taking over, others need a careful prune.

What are they?

It depends what the plants are. You'll know next year whether they have a new lease of life!

Oops, Sorry Bubba!

'salright

Pity you apologised, I was sharpening my shears and heading to your garden laughing manically ;)

They will grow back but much sympathy. Dh did this in our garden a couple of times and is now only allowed supervised access to the shears. I'd sooner let my two year old wield them than him!

DH is the same. He generally waits until I'm out before unleashing his wrath on the poor shrubbery. He's never cutting DS's hair, that's for certain!

Last time he mowed the grass, he ran over the only stuff still flowering, and also decapitated my pumpkin vine.

I was wondering about this. Next door's Son-in-law from Gambia dug up our front lawn and put stones down 'cos we are lazy. Did a lovely job.

We asked him to come and tidy up the back, mow the lawn and prune and he was here for two hours! Butterfly shrub looks like a tree after an Australian bushfire and my flowering lavender is a tiny spiky stump.

New ones will come apparently.

It's shame as I was going to give him a tenner for the grass but he worked for so long I felt I had to pay twenty and I can't afford that every week. Will be braving the lawnmower myself tomorrow. It can't be that hard - DH can do it.