Hedges

How to trim hedges at home.

Most hedges aren’t fussy, they just want a sharp blade, the right time of year and a straight eye. Here’s how we approach them for our customers across East Kent.

4 min readWritten by the Sandwich Lawn Mowing team

When to trim

  • Formal hedges (privet, box, beech, hornbeam): twice a year, late spring and late summer.
  • Conifers (leylandii, cypress): once or twice in summer. Never cut back into brown wood, it won’t re-sprout.
  • Flowering hedges: after they’ve flowered, so you don’t lose next year’s display.
  • Avoid March–August for heavy cuts if birds might be nesting, it’s the law.

Nesting birds

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it’s an offence to intentionally damage an active nest. Check the hedge carefully before any cut between March and August, and delay if you spot activity.

The string-line trick

The easiest way to keep a hedge straight is to cheat. Run a taut string line along the top where you want the new height. Cut along it. Take the string down. Done.

For the sides, step back every few minutes to check the overall shape from a distance, it’s much easier to see wobbles from 5 metres away than up close.

Shape matters

Cut the hedge slightly narrower at the top than the bottom. This “A-frame” shape lets light reach the lower branches so they stay green and bushy. A flat-sided or top-heavy hedge usually goes bare at the base.

Technique

  1. Cut the sides first, working bottom to top with a sweeping motion.
  2. Then do the top.
  3. Keep the trimmer blade parallel to the surface you’re cutting.
  4. Use smooth, steady passes, never stab or twist the blade.
  5. Stop and clear clippings from the blade regularly.

Clean up

Lay an old sheet along the base of the hedge before you start, it makes collecting clippings ten times faster. Bag them, compost them, or drop them at the local tip.

Hedge too tall? Too long? Too much?

Our hedge cutting service starts at £20 and includes blow-down and clean-up. We cover Sandwich, Deal, Worth, Ash, Eastry, Sandwich Bay and the surrounding villages. Get a quote.