Hi, I'm a total gardening newbie but I hoping to get a bit of advice.
A few months ago I planted 6 pyracantha shrubs equally spaced out
along the front of my 7m wide garden. I eventually want a hedge but at
the time I could only afford buying the 6 so there is about 1m gap
between them. I now intend to plant another 5 in between the existing
shrubs.

When I planted the original ones I dug up about twice the root ball
size to plant them in. However, I've discovered that grass cutting is
taking a while due to having to go around each shrub carefully with
hand shears. I am also worried about the future as the lawnmower will
not fit in between the shrubs and hand cutting the grass could become
more difficult when the shrubs grow. I bought them about 3 years old
with 2-4 branches in a U shape.

Should I cut a trench instead of planting in holes? Is it ok to cut
the turf back a bit from each established shrub at this stage? Maybe
have about 50cm space around each shrub that I could fill with mulch?
This is the front of my house so I would like it to look reasonably
attractive.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Badbark.