Bringing overgrown hedges back into proportion.

When a hedge needs a reduction, not a cut

Two common signs. First: the height has crept a foot or two above what you originally wanted, the base is going bare, and the sides are leaning into the path or the neighbour's fence. Second: someone has stopped cutting it for a few years and it is now blocking a window, a view of the church tower, or the winter sun off the south side of the house.

A routine cut will not fix either of those. A reduction is a bigger job that resets the geometry and gives you a hedge you can maintain again with routine cuts afterwards.

How we plan a reduction

• Free site visit for reductions: we cannot do these properly from photos
• We tell you what will regrow from a hard cut and what will not, per species
• For leylandii, thuja and other conifers we usually stage the reduction over two or three winters: those species do not regrow from bare wood, so cutting straight to final height leaves permanent brown faces
• For beech, hornbeam, yew, holly and hawthorn we can usually reduce in a single winter cut; those species reshoot from old wood
• Fixed price in advance, with a clear description of what will look like on each visit

Timing

Reductions happen in the dormant window, September to late February, both for wildlife-law reasons (heavy work outside the 1 March to 31 August nesting window as standard) and because the plants respond better when they are not actively growing. Late winter, just before spring flush, is often ideal.

What it costs

Reductions run from around £300 for a modest hedge up to £900+ for a large staged job. Wildly variable, so we quote after seeing the site.