David Combs wrote:
....
You have this bush with a branch that's 5 or 6 feet long,
is by the side of a path or sidewalk, and sticks out
into the sidewalk by, say, 2 feet or so.
....
You don't really want to cut it way back at the trunk, because
you loose not only the long branch that's bothering no one,
but ALSO all the branches that come off IT.
....
So, that's my question. What do I do?
....

Depends in part on what the bush is; different things tend to regrow in
different ways, but--

In general, if you take the whole branch it will fill back in again --
how long depends on how fast-growing the particular specimen is.

You can trim at the desired boundary or inside somewhat and most
decorative plantings will sprout new growth at that point. The
difficulty there is you now have a new generation point that's not that
far removed from the limiting place.

So, in general, it's better to trim back farther and let regrow and then
keep trimmed _before_ such drastic trimback is necessary. That of
course, is on the same order as New Year's resolutions...

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