Unpopular opinion: trimming back the overgrown boxwood shrubs by the driveway made my whole yard look 6 feet wider in just one afternoon

I finally cut them down from 8 feet tall to 3 feet last Saturday and the difference was instant, now I'm wondering if anyone else has tried something simple like that to totally change how a space feels.

2 comments

2 Comments

rileyjones22d ago

Wait a minute there, you didn't really make the yard look wider by trimming boxwoods. That's not how it works. Cutting them down from 8 feet to 3 feet just means they're shorter, not that the space around them magically expands sideways. What actually happened is you cleared up the visual clutter and got rid of the wall effect those tall shrubs were creating. Now you can see past them instead of looking at a big green block, so the whole area feels more open. That's totally different from making something look wider, its really more about depth and openness than width. Try trimming back the sides next time if you want to actually change how wide something feels.

norag5522d ago

Oh I remember reading something about this in a gardening magazine once. They said shorter shrubs can actually make a space feel wider by removing that visual barrier you mentioned, so you're spot on about the depth thing.