Tall Hedge Service
Large, high boundary hedges cut from a proper working position, with the top set to a line rather than estimated from below.
You can nearly always tell how a tall hedge was cut without being told. If the top dips in the middle of each span and rises where somebody stood, it was cut from the ground on a pole. If it runs true from end to end, somebody got up to eye level with it.
That is the entire argument for this service. Above roughly two metres, a hedge stops being something you can see the top of, and a top you cannot see is a top you are guessing at. A long reach trimmer worked overhead from the lawn cuts on an arc, at an angle, with the blade tip further from you than the heel, and with your view of the surface obstructed by the surface itself. The result is the familiar scalloped top: a shallow trough between each position the operator worked from, and a proud ridge where they reached furthest. It is not carelessness, it is geometry.
Work from a platform at the right height and the same hedge, the same machine and the same person produce a flat top, because the blade is level, the cut face is visible, and the whole run can be sighted along before anything is finished.
Platforms, tripods and towers
What we set up depends on the hedge, the ground and the length of the run, and it is decided on site rather than assumed.
- Tripod laddersThe right tool for garden hedges of moderate height, particularly where the ground is soft, uneven or planted. A tripod stands on three legs on ground that would not hold a tower, is quick to move along a run, and does not need to lean on the hedge for support. A leaning ladder against a hedge crushes the face it rests on.
- Mobile towers and platformsFor long tall runs, a stable working platform at the correct height is faster and produces a far better top than any amount of ladder work. It gives a level position to sight along, room to work with both hands, and a consistent height reference from one span to the next.
- Firm, level ground firstNothing gets erected on soft borders, on a slope beyond what the equipment allows, over a drain cover or on ground that has been wet for a week. If conditions are wrong on the day we will reschedule rather than improvise, and we would rather tell you that than take a chance in your garden.
- What we do not doWe do not climb into hedges, work off unstable stacks of whatever is in the garden, or take on work that properly belongs to a tree surgeon with rope access. A hedge that has become a line of trees is an arboricultural job and we will say so.
Five things that decide the job, none of them visible in a photograph
Access and ground conditions
Whether equipment can get to both faces, through what gate, across what surface. Whether the ground will carry a tower. Whether there is anywhere to stand at all on the far side. Where the arisings can be dropped and how far they have to be carried to the van, which on a long tall hedge is a substantial part of the day.
The boundary
Tall hedges usually have two sides and often two owners. Where we need to work from a neighbour's land, or set equipment on it, we ask permission first and we will not step over the line without it. If permission is not given we cut what can be safely reached from your side and tell you exactly how that will look, rather than promising a symmetrical finish we cannot deliver.
Overhead services
We look up before we look at the hedge. We will not work near live high voltage lines, and we will not put a tower, a pole trimmer or falling arisings anywhere they could reach an overhead conductor. Where a hedge has grown into or under cables the correct route is the network operator, and we will tell you that rather than take the work on.
The fall of the ground
On sloping gardens there are two legitimate finishes, and they look very different. A true level top holds one horizontal datum, so the hedge reads as taller at the bottom of the slope, which is usually right beside a house or a formal setting. A raked top follows the ground at a fixed height above it, which usually suits a long rural boundary. We agree which one you want before we start, because it cannot be changed halfway along.
Species and how far it can be cut
A tall beech, hornbeam, laurel or yew hedge can be topped and will regrow into the new line. A tall leylandii cannot be cut below the green, which changes what is achievable and needs saying at the quotation and not on the day. See Conifer & Leylandii Care for what that means in practice.
How we quote a tall hedge
We come and look. On most ordinary garden hedges we are happy to quote from two or three photographs and a rough length, and we say so on the homepage. Tall work is the exception, because the cost is driven by access, boundaries, ground and clearing rather than by metres of hedge.
The visit takes very little of your time. We measure the run, check both faces, look at the ground and the overheads, agree the finished height and whether the top is to be level or raked, and confirm who owns which side. You then get a figure that holds, rather than a figure with conditions attached to it.
Where a hedge is going to need bringing down substantially before it can be maintained normally, we will quote the reduction and the ongoing cycle separately, so you can see what the first year costs and what every year after it costs.
A site visit, not a guess
Keeping it at a sensible height
The best outcome of a tall hedge job is that it never needs to be a tall hedge job again. Once a hedge is brought back to a height that can be worked comfortably and cut cleanly, holding it there is ordinary maintenance. Where you want the height kept for privacy we keep it, and simply put the visits in often enough that the top stays true.
Either way the hedge goes onto a cycle. HedgeCare sets that cycle, books the visits for the year and reminds you before we come, and every visit is worked to The Kent Hedge Standard. If the height needs to come down first, that is Hedge Reduction; if the hedge has lost its shape as well as its scale, Hedge Rescue.
Tall hedges, asked and answered
Why will you not quote a tall hedge from a photograph?
Because a photograph shows the hedge and not the job. What decides the cost of a tall hedge is access and ground: whether a tower can be set up on firm level ground, whether the far side belongs to a neighbour, whether there are cables overhead, how the ground falls along the run, and where the arisings can be dropped and carried out. None of that is legible in a picture. For ordinary garden hedges we are happy to quote from photographs. For tall work we come and look.
Do you need permission to work on the neighbour's side of the hedge?
If the hedge needs to be cut from their land, or if we need to stand equipment on it, then yes. We ask, and we will not step over a boundary without it. Where permission is refused we cut what can be reached safely and legally from your side and tell you plainly what that will look like, because a hedge cut on one face only will not carry a symmetrical outline.
How do you cut a level top on a sloping garden?
There are two correct answers and we agree which one you want before starting. A true level top holds one horizontal line and lets the hedge appear deeper at the low end of the slope, which suits a formal setting alongside a building. A raked top follows the ground at a constant height above it. The mistake is a top that does neither, wandering between the two, which is what happens when a hedge is cut by eye without a datum.
Will you work near overhead cables?
Not near live high voltage lines, and not where machinery, a tower or arisings could come into contact with any overhead conductor. Where a hedge has grown into or beneath cables the correct route is through the network operator, and we will tell you that rather than take the work. Insulated service drops into a house are treated with the same caution and assessed on site.
Book a site visit for the tall hedge
Telephone or send us the address and a rough length. We will come and look at the access, the boundary and the ground, then give you a figure that holds.