Hedge Overgrown And Out Of Shape

What's happening?

An overgrown hedge is a timing problem before it is a cutting problem. Two things constrain when work can happen. Nesting birds are protected: it is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while it is in use or being built, so hedge cutting in the main nesting season needs a check for active nests first and has to stop if one is found. And the plant itself has limits — conifers such as Leyland cypress will not regenerate from bare brown wood, so a hedge cut back past its green growth stays brown, while beech, hornbeam, yew, holly, laurel and privet will break from old wood and can be renovated hard. That is why the same job is routine on one hedge and irreversible on another.

What usually causes it?

• Cutting that has drifted outwards year on year, so the hedge is now much wider than it was planted
• The hedge left uncut for several seasons, putting on unrestrained height and width
• A conifer hedge allowed to exceed the height it can be reduced back to
• Shading at the base, leaving the lower part bare and woody while the top thickens
• Cutting only the sides and never reducing the top, so the hedge keeps climbing
• No taper — a hedge cut with vertical or overhanging sides shades its own base
• Neglect after a change of ownership, where nobody was maintaining it for a few years

When should you call a gardener?

Call a gardener when the hedge needs reducing rather than trimming, when it is too tall to reach safely from the ground, or when you do not know what species it is and therefore whether it will recover from a hard cut. Also call where the hedge is on a boundary and the work involves the neighbour's side, or where a formal high hedge complaint is in the air — the height and the species both need establishing properly. If the hedge has grown into trees with real trunks, that is a tree surgeon's job.

What will the gardener actually do?

• Identify the species and advise how far it can be reduced and whether it will regenerate from old wood
• Check for active nests and time the work accordingly
• Reduce height and width to a defined line, cutting with a taper so light reaches the base
• Stage a hard renovation across seasons on hedges that need it, taking one face or the top at a time
• Clear out dead wood and thin congested growth to let the interior green up, then feed, mulch and water so the hedge has the resources to break from old wood
• Remove and dispose of the arisings, and set a maintenance cut cycle that keeps the hedge at the agreed size