How much can I trim this bush without harming it?

[saira1139]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I really don't know anything about this topic, so I'm hoping someone can help.

There is a bush in our neighbors' yard that is encroaching into the small pull-over spot in our driveway, so our car scrapes against it when we pull in. The neighbors said it's fine if we trim it back, but we are afraid to go too far. My husband already trimmed it a little and is afraid it will die if he goes any further, but we still can't pull our car in properly.

I don't know what kind of bush it is, but I took two photos for reference. Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

[rainbowgardener]

I'm not sure what kind of a shrub it is either, but it looks sturdy, healthy, and well -established. So it will be difficult to harm it. Cut it back significantly. Many shrubs tend to branch out at the cut point, so each cut stem branches out into two or several new stems at that point. So if you just cut it right at the edge of your driveway, in just a few weeks, what you will have is a bunch more stems scraping your car. So you want to cut it well back from the driveway, cutting off maybe a third of each branch.

[saira1139]

Great! Thanks so much for your reply! I was hoping we would be able to trim it up a good bit more, and am glad to have some peace of mind that we won't be harming it in the process