About Kent Hedges
We do one thing across one county: we look after hedges, properly, on a cycle, for people who would rather never think about it again.
The gap in the middle
There are two trades either side of a hedge, and neither of them is a hedge trade.
On one side is the general gardener. Mowing, weeding, a bit of everything, and a trimmer in the back of the van for when someone asks. Low price, quick work, and that combination is exactly why so many Kent hedges have a wandering top line, gouged faces and a bare, shaded base. Nothing about it is dishonest. Cutting a hedge well is simply slower than the price allows, and knowing where not to cut takes species knowledge a generalist has no particular reason to have acquired.
On the other side is the tree surgeon. Genuinely skilled, properly equipped, and priced for dismantling mature trees on a day rate with a crew and a chipper. Correct for a failing oak over a roof. Considerable overkill for thirty metres of privet.
Between the two sits the ordinary boundary hedge: the most visible plant most households own, and the one with the least specialist attention paid to it. That gap is what Kent Hedges fills. We are hedge maintenance specialists working across the county, for homes and businesses that want the hedge to look right this year and still be a good hedge in ten years' time.
Why hedge work deserves a specialist
A hedge is a long-lived structure that remembers every cut it has been given. Take a leylandii, or any other of the Cupressaceae, back into brown wood and the gap is permanent, because that family does not reshoot from old wood. Yew is the single conifer exception, which is why an overgrown yew can be renovated and an overgrown leylandii often cannot. Cut a beech or hornbeam hedge with vertical sides and the base thins out within a few seasons because no light reaches it; cut it with a batter, narrower at the top than the bottom, and the base stays furnished and snow slides off instead of splaying the top open.
Timing carries as much weight as technique. Formal box, yew and privet want two or three light clips through the growing season rather than one hard one. Beech and hornbeam are marcescent, holding brown leaf right through winter, and take a single late summer cut to set the outline for the year. Laurel is best cut with secateurs rather than run over with a trimmer, because sliced laurel leaves brown off at the edges within a fortnight. Renovating a badly neglected hedge is a job for two or three seasons, one face at a time, not one afternoon.
None of that is exotic knowledge. It just has to be held by the person standing at the hedge with the blade running, which is the whole argument for a specialist.
Three things, and price is not one of them
We will not be the cheapest quotation you get. We are not trying to be. There is always somebody prepared to do it for less, and the hedge usually shows you why within two seasons.
- QualityA hedge that looks cut by somebody who cared, checked from every angle it is actually seen from, with straight lines where a formal finish was asked for and a proper batter on the sides.
- ReliabilityBooked, confirmed, reminded and turned up to. No chasing, no vanishing between seasons, no being told next week for a month.
- ConvenienceQuoted from a photograph where we can, waste taken away every time, and the next visit already in the diary before we leave the current one.
How we work
The same five steps on every hedge we take on. It is the backbone of HedgeCare, and the reason our customers are mostly people paying twice a year, every year, rather than once.
We inspect
Species, height, width, condition, aspect, what previous cuts have done to it, and how formal a finish you want. This is where we establish whether the hedge needs tidying, shaping, reducing or rescuing.
We set the cycle
One, two or three visits a year, timed to the species and around the nesting season rather than to a generic calendar. A fast conifer and a beech hedge do not want the same schedule.
We book
The visits go into the diary for the year ahead, at the right point in the season, at a price agreed before the work starts.
We remind
You hear from us before we arrive, not after you have noticed the hedge got away from you. We remember so you do not have to.
We record
Photographs and notes from every visit, kept against your hedge, so the next cut continues the last one instead of starting again from scratch.
What we will not do
A firm is defined as much by its refusals as by its services. These four are not negotiable, and we would rather lose the job than bend them.
- Cut through a nestEvery hedge is checked for active nests before a blade is started, in line with the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The main nesting season runs from roughly 1 March to 31 August, though birds nest outside those dates too. If we find a nest in use we stop, work a different face where that is safe, or come back later. A booking is not a reason to break the law.
- Cut a conifer into brown wood to hit a numberIf you ask for four feet off a leylandii and the green only runs two feet deep, we will say so before we start rather than leave you with a permanent brown scar. Where a conifer hedge is past saving we will tell you and quote for removal and replanting instead.
- Quote a price we cannot holdThe figure we give you is the figure on the invoice. We would rather look at a difficult hedge in person than post an attractive number and revise it once the van is on the drive.
- Leave cuttings behindThe hedge is blown clear, paths, beds, lawns and driveways are cleared, and the green waste is removed and disposed of responsibly. Clearing up is part of the job, not an extra line.
The Kent Hedge Standard
Ten points the person cutting your hedge works through before they leave: Straight, Symmetrical, Hedge-safe, Wildlife-safe, Clean, Tidy, Responsible, Secure, Documented, Approved. The last one matters most. You are asked to look at the result while we are still there to change it, rather than finding out what we did after the van has gone.
What sits behind the work
Put your hedge on a proper cycle
Tell us what you have and where it is. We will tell you what it needs, when it should be cut, and what it costs to keep it right.