Deter Snakes From Hiding Out In Your Garden With An Essential Gardening Task

When you're deep into the garden bed, it's not a great time to come across a snake slithering through. The critters love looking for good hiding spots, and overgrown or dense shrubs are one common backyard feature attracting snakes to your yard. Pruning shrubs and trees to keep branches from touching the ground may help you avoid another run-in with your slithering neighbors. 

Snakes don't like to be exposed or spend much time out in the open for a number of reasons. One, they are reptiles, so they are affected more by outside temperatures than we are. Direct sun can be a problem for them on warmer days. Two, since snakes are sometimes on the menu themselves, overgrown shrubs offer protection from predators. If they're out in the open, it makes it easier for other animals, like hawks, to spot them and pluck them off the ground for an easy meal.

The best strategy is to make the garden as inhospitable as you can. That means keeping the grass cut and regularly pruning back thick bush or shrub plants. It's especially important to keep any branches near your home or roof trimmed. This simple but essential gardening task of pruning can be a key strategy to keeping snakes away.

When to trim overgrown bushes and shrubs feels tricky, but it's important for healthy plants and deterring snakes. For old-wood perennial shrubs, late spring is the best time to prune, but only after the spring blooms are all finished. New growth shrubs that bloom in mid-summer should be cut back in late winter, while they're still dormant. If you've let shrubs get out of hand, your harsher pruning may lead to fewer flowers for that year, but your shrub will bounce back.

Either late winter or early spring trimming also fits the schedule for most snakes. Many reptiles spend the winter in brumation, a period where they slow down and don't eat. They'll come out of snug holes or crevices when the weather warms, usually in March or April. They'll be looking for prey and mates. If you don't want snakes to hide in your shrubs, make sure they're nice and tidy by then. 

In order to strategically prune to discourage the reptiles, grab your loppers or pruners and head to the yard. Focus on thick shrubs first, like boxwood hedges, since they can be a magnet for snakes. Tackle the lowest lying branches first. You want to keep foliage at least 6 inches off the ground, but two feet would be even better. This should be enough space to make the reptiles think twice about sticking around. Even if they do wiggle their way in, you'll be able to see them more easily.