Neat, Well-Shaped Hedges Without You Giving Up a Weekend To Get Them in Knowle

A well-trimmed hedge does more for a garden than almost anything else of the same size: it frames the borders, gives privacy a neat face and makes the whole plot look cared for. It is also one of the most commonly postponed jobs, because hedge trimming is awkward, physical and generates a surprising amount of waste. That is precisely what this visit is for — and done regularly, it stays quick and cheap rather than becoming a big reduction job every few years.

Trimming to the species, not just the shape

Every hedge has its own calendar. Fast-growing privet and leylandii want trimming two or three times in the growing season; beech and hornbeam are usually cut once in late summer and hold their brown leaves through winter; laurel is best cut with secateurs or a sickle rather than shears, because sheared leaves go brown at the edges; and flowering hedges like forsythia or escallonia are trimmed after they flower, not before, or you cut off the display. We ask what your hedge is — or identify it on arrival — and time the cut accordingly, because a hedge cut at the wrong moment either flushes straight back out or sulks for a year.

Checking for residents before we cut

Before anything is trimmed, we check the hedge for nesting birds — thoroughly, not with a glance from the patio. In spring and early summer this is a real possibility in any decent hedge, and if we find an active nest we leave that section strictly alone until the young have flown. It is the law and it is also simple decency; we would rather come back in a fortnight than disturb a nest. The same check applies to hedgehog shelters, wasps and anything else that has decided your hedge is home.

How a good trim is done

The shape matters as much as the timing. A hedge should be slightly wider at the bottom than the top — a gentle taper — so sunlight reaches the lower growth and it stays thick and green to the ground; hedges cut dead square with fat tops go thin and gappy at the base within a few years. We cut to the height and line you want, take the faces back evenly rather than nibbling, and keep the top flat or gently rounded as the hedge suits. Long clippings are raked out of the hedge itself as we go, because material left inside rots and opens holes.

Clearing up properly

A trim that leaves a foot of clippings along the border is half a job. We gather and remove everything — green waste disposal is agreed with you in advance, so if you compost your own clippings we stack them neatly where you want them, and if you want them gone we take them. Edges and paths are swept or blown down afterwards, because the finishing touches are the part people actually notice.

Keeping the schedule

The cheapest hedge is a regularly trimmed one: light trims take a fraction of the time of a big cut-back and keep the hedge dense and healthy. If you would rather not think about it, we can put your hedges on a regular maintenance round — once or twice a year for slow growers, more often for the fast ones — timed to each species. It is the difference between maintaining a hedge and periodically rescuing one.

How to book

Booking is by phone or the website; tell us roughly how many hedges you have, their length and height, and whether you want clippings taken away. You pay a booking fee when you book, labour is charged hourly at a rate that depends on how soon you need the visit, and the full cost is quoted and approved before we start, with any extras such as waste removal listed separately.