Hedge Trimming in Selston, Kirkby

Selston is a village with a lot of long boundary hedges - along lanes, around bigger gardens and between neighbours - and they are a job that gets harder every year they are left. A hedge cut once or twice a year stays thick and manageable.

Before any cutting starts, the hedge is checked for nesting birds, because disturbing an active nest is against the law. Late summer and early autumn is the main cutting season in Selston, with a lighter trim in spring once nesting is over.

The shape keeps the hedge healthy: a little narrower at the top than the bottom, so light reaches the lower branches and the base stays full. Tops are cut to a line and faces cut evenly.

Long rural hedges in Selston can produce a lot of clippings, and all of it is raked out and taken away rather than left along the base of the hedge.

Hedges that have got badly out of hand are reduced over a couple of seasons, giving them the best chance to regrow thick rather than going bare.

Boundary hedges in Selston are often shared with a neighbour or run along a lane, so it is worth agreeing who cuts which side and to what height before work starts. We can deal with both faces and the top in one visit where access allows, which usually works out simpler for everyone than two separate trims at different times of the year.

Laurel, privet, hawthorn and beech are the hedges we see most around Selston, and each one takes cutting differently. Large-leaved laurel is best cut with hand tools where possible so the leaves are not left torn and brown, while privet and hawthorn take a hedge trimmer well. A lawn that stays wet, a hedge that has gone woody at the base, or a fence leaning under the weight of a shrub are worth looking at before the next season makes them worse.