cutting back heather

[nickso]

in my garden i have an area of heathers around 2M by 2M. its all very attractive but its starting to get a little unsightly as its a bit overgrown and its difficult to remove the weeds that are growing in between the heathers.

my question is how far can i cut them back without killing them and is this a good time of year to do it? i always thought heathers were quite hardy and could probably withstand quite a harsh cutting back.

im an engineer so im not particularly garden minded as you may be able to tell

 

[sirusman]

I belive you cut right back hard to regenerate,the way they do it on Exmoor and Dartmoor is to burn it and it regenerates