Book the hedge cut before the spring flush

October is a good month to look at a Norfolk hedge properly, rather than waiting until it is blocking the path in May and hoping for a gap in the diary. Privet and laurel will have put on a late flush. Beech and hornbeam are holding their leaves or just starting to thin. You can see the shape you actually want before everything starts again.

A trim and a renovation are different jobs

A trim takes the face and the top back to the line you had last year. It is clippings, a tidy base, and a hedge that looks kept. A renovation is a harder cut into older wood because the hedge has become a tree line. Laurel and privet usually break away from that. An old leylandii often does not: brown wood stays brown, and you can be left looking at a skeleton until you decide to take it out and replace the boundary with a fence.

If the hedge is only slightly past its line, book the trim for autumn or late winter. If it needs taking down hard, say so when you ask for a price. The time, the waste and the way it will look for a season are all different, and a quote for a trim will not cover a renovation once the trimmers are out.

Nests are not a footnote

Wild birds nest in garden hedges. It is an offence to damage or destroy a nest that is in use or being built. In practice that means from March through the summer we look before we cut, and if birds are using the hedge the job waits. It is also why October and the winter are the kinder time to do a substantial cut: the breeding season is over, and the hedge can settle before spring.

That is not a promise that every autumn day is automatically fine, or that a January cut is always best for the plant. It is a reason to plan the work instead of ringing in the second week of May because the hedge is in the neighbour’s light and the blackbird is already in it.

Leylandii and height

Tall evergreen hedges cause a particular kind of fall-out. If an evergreen hedge is affecting a neighbour’s enjoyment of their home and it is over two metres, councils have a route to intervene under the high hedges rules. That is their process, not ours. We will cut to a height you are entitled to set. We will not turn up to referee whose light it is, and we will not promise that a conifer will green up from a cut into old wood.

What to send with the booking

A photo of the whole hedge, from a few paces back, plus a note of how high you want the top. Say whether the cuttings should leave the garden. Chippings are useful on a border and a nuisance on a small patio. If the hedge is on the coast — Cromer, Sheringham, Yarmouth — mention the wind. A hedge that is also your shelter wants a lighter hand than a privet screen in a Poringland close.

Hedge trimming is booked across the Norwich round and the Norfolk areas we cover. If you want it done before the flush, the useful phone call is this side of Christmas: 07936 049191.