Hedge cutting in Blackburn and Lancashire
Routine trims, reshaping, serious height reduction, overgrown leylandii and conifers, and full removal. Nests checked before the machines start, and every clipping taken away.
What we do to hedges
A hedge is the one thing in a garden that quietly doubles in size while you are not looking. Cut it every year and it stays where you put it. Miss three years and it is a different job altogether — and that is fine, that is most of the work we get called out to.
Routine trimming
The annual or twice-yearly cut that keeps a hedge at the size it already is. Sides taken in flat and square, top levelled off, and the whole thing left with clean lines. Quick, tidy, and by far the cheapest way to own a hedge.
Shaping and reshaping
Where a hedge has been cut badly, or cut on one side only for years, it goes lopsided — wide at the top, bare at the bottom, bulging on the road side. Reshaping brings it back to a proper form: slightly wider at the base than the top, so light reaches the bottom and it thickens up instead of going bare.
Height and width reduction
Bringing a hedge down from where it has got to. This is the big one for conifer hedges that have gone past the guttering. Reduction means taking real height off and re-establishing a top, not just skimming the surface. Expect it to look severe for a season before it greens back over.
Overgrown conifer and leylandii
Leylandii is the fastest-growing hedge plant in common use in this country, and it does not stop. Two things matter with it: it can be reduced hard on the top, but it will not regrow from bare brown wood on the sides. Cut a leylandii side back past the green and it stays brown there permanently. We will tell you before we cut exactly how far in we can safely go, so there are no surprises when the machine stops.
Hedge removal
Sometimes the honest answer is that the hedge has to go — it has taken three metres of garden, it is shading the whole plot, or the roots are lifting a wall. We take it out, grind or dig the stumps depending on access, and clear the ground so you can fence, plant or turf it.
Hedges we work on regularly
- Leylandii and other conifers
- Privet
- Beech and hornbeam
- Laurel
- Hawthorn and blackthorn
- Holly
- Yew
- Mixed native and field hedges
Different species take a cut differently — yew will regrow from old wood, leylandii will not. That governs how far back we can go.
High Hedges — the two-metre rule
If a neighbour's evergreen hedge over two metres is blocking your light, councils in England have powers under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 to act — but only after you have genuinely tried to sort it out between yourselves, and there is a fee to complain. It is worth a conversation over the fence first.
Nesting birds and when we will not cut
Between roughly March and August, hedges are full of nests. Damaging an active nest is a criminal offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 — and it applies to the person doing the cutting.
Here is how we handle it, every time, in that window:
- The hedge is checked before any machine is started — properly, into the hedge, not a glance at it.
- If there is an active nest, that section is left. Not trimmed lightly around, left.
- The rest of the run can usually still be done, and we come back for the remainder once the birds have fledged.
- If the whole hedge is in use, the job waits. We will tell you that on the day rather than cut anyway.
Nesting season is not a hard set of dates — some species nest earlier and some go on into September. The check is what matters, not the calendar.
The best time to cut a hedge
Late summer to early spring is the straightforward window for most hedges, once the nesting season is over. A formal hedge such as privet or leylandii will take a second cut in early summer to keep it sharp, subject to the nest check.
Hard reduction work is best done in late winter, when the plant is dormant and has a whole growing season ahead of it to recover.
Book early for autumn. Everyone wants their hedge doing the same three weeks in September. If you ring in July we can usually put you where you want to be.
How a hedge job runs
Check and agree
We look through the hedge for nests, confirm the finished height and width with you, and mark it if it helps. This is the moment to say "a bit lower" — not afterwards.
Sheets down
Ground sheets under the run so the clippings land on them rather than in your borders and gravel. It is the difference between a tidy job and a fortnight of picking bits out of the beds.
Cutting
Sides first, then the top, working to a line so it finishes straight. Anything on a boundary gets cut to your side of it unless the neighbour has agreed otherwise.
Clear and go
Sheets lifted, clippings chipped or bagged, paths and drive blown down. The waste leaves with us.
See the difference
Hedges show the difference better than almost anything else. Drag the slider across.
Nothing. Quotes are free.
Hedge work is priced by length, height, how far it is coming back, how much waste that makes and how easily we can get it out. A twenty-metre leylandii run coming down by two metres is a very different day to the same hedge getting a routine trim.
- Measured and quoted from seeing it, not estimated from a photo
- We tell you honestly how far back a species can be cut before it stops regrowing
- Nest checks are part of the job in season, not an optional extra
- All clippings taken away and the ground left clean
- Regular customers get booked in for the same slot each year if you want
Why we will not price it over the phone
A price given down the phone is a guess, and guesses get revised upwards on the day. Looking at the job takes us fifteen minutes and means the number we give you is the number you pay.
Our guarantee
If you are not happy with any part of the work, tell us before we leave — or ring within 14 days — and we will come back and put it right at no charge. That covers the work we carried out. It does not cover new growth, storm damage after we have left, or plants that fail to take. This is on top of your legal rights, not instead of them.
Prices on this website
You will not find a "from £X" figure anywhere on this site. Every garden is different, and a headline price that does not apply to your job is not much use to you. Ring or send the form and you will get a real one.
Questions about hedge cutting
When can you cut my hedge?
Most of the year. The one real constraint is the bird nesting season, roughly March to August, when we check the hedge before cutting and leave any section with an active nest in it. Outside that window there is nothing stopping us. Late winter is the best time for hard reduction work.
How far back can you cut a leylandii?
The top can come down a long way and it will be fine. The sides are the problem: leylandii will not regrow from bare brown wood, so if we cut past the green growth that face stays brown permanently. We will show you on the day exactly where that line is on your hedge, and you decide before anything is cut.
Will my hedge look bad after a big reduction?
For a while, yes, and it is better to hear that now. A hard reduction exposes older wood and looks bare for a season. Most species green back over through the following spring and summer and end up thicker than they were. Leylandii is the exception on the sides, as above.
Do you cut hedges on the boundary with next door?
We cut to your side of the boundary as standard, because that is what you are entitled to have done. If your neighbour wants their side doing at the same time, it is usually cheaper for both of you and we are happy to sort it — but they need to ask us themselves.
How often should a hedge be cut?
A formal hedge such as privet, box or leylandii looks best with two cuts a year. Beech, hornbeam and most native or mixed hedges are fine with one. If a hedge is already at the size you want, keeping to that schedule is far cheaper than letting it go and paying for a reduction later.
Can you take the hedge out completely?
Yes. We cut it down, deal with the stumps — ground out or dug depending on access and what is going in afterwards — and clear the ground. If you are replacing it with fencing, we can do that in the same visit.
What happens to all the clippings?
They go through the chipper and leave with us. If you want the chip left for mulch, say so and we will leave a pile of it.
Want a price on your garden?
Tell us what needs doing and we will come and look. Quotes are free, there is no obligation, and you get a straight answer on what the job actually involves.