Trimming Clusia Hedges with Machete

Although I trim all my other hedges with a gas powered hedge trimmer, Clusia plants need to be trimmed with a machete. Because of the size and shape of the leaves, hedge trimmers are actually more difficult to use on Clusia. Also, the hedge trimmer will shred the leaves and branches and this leaves the plant open for disease and insects. Leaving a clean cut on the leaf allows the plant to heal. In this video I show you how I use painters' drop cloths to catch my trimmings. This reduces the amount of raking and bagging I have to do by at least 90% and also prevents me from raking up my bed of mulch under the hedges. I was very hesitant about using a machete, but, with a little practice I was able to become comfortable using it. Warning: the Clusia plant secretes a sap from the leaves and branches and will permanently stain your clothes, be forewarned. Please see my channel for a short video on cleaning and sharpening the machete after cutting the Clusia.    • Cleaning and Sharpening my Machete - Post ...   - Link to Cleaning and Sharpening Machete Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:41 Approach 2:21 Choosing a Machete 3:15 Preparation with Drop Cloths 5:25 Let's Get Cutting 10:09 Cutting the Tops of the Hedges 15:00 Collecting the Trimmings/Debris 19:07 Bagging 21:30 The last 1% of Debris