Hand operated hedge shears or electric.?

[Pun]

Ive just (yesterday saturday) finished trimming the last of the leylandi hedges around the complete garden borders,

Its a  job I would normaly have finished 4 weeks ago but due to work on a Gite project Im behind my little routine,

While clipping away I managed to blunt my electric shears and so reverted back to the old hand operated shears to finish the last 40feet of hedge when a french friend called me over to say the hand operated way will not only look better but the hedge will grow slower,

 

Its a much slower way of cutting the hedge but I must admit Im wondering if he's correct,

anyone have any thoughts on electric, vers, hand operated shears??

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

I can understand the possibility of a better finish with hand shears, if you have the energy to do a decent job. I don't see how the cutting method will change the growth speed, though.

Being a bit biased I'd probably trim leylandii with a bulldozer!

[Jonzjob]

Caw, you are lucky. I've got about 80 yards of pyracantha hedge to look forward to in the next couple of weaks (not a smelling mastike)!

The 1st time I used a petrol hedge cutter and then spent an age picking up ALL the bits. The next time was with pruning cutters, small, long and 4.5 meters long and a large sheet to catch the bits. It took longer to cut, but the clearing more than made up for that. We have to collect all the bits because of the danger of our dog treading on them. They make blackthorn look friendly and are not called firethorn for nowt!

Then there is the 82 leylandi to get trimmed professionally. They are best part of 20 feet high, thanks to the previous owners, and are much too much for my delicate condition(?), plus there ain't that much beer in the Aude to last that job if I did it![B][B]

Oh happy daze?!

[Pierre ZFP]

Yeah I'd go for the petrol verson on the hedgecutter

Except for the leylandi, when I would use a petrol chainsaw [;-)]