Harrogate hedge care
Hedge Cutting and Hedge Reduction in Harrogate
Hedge cutting, reshaping and height reduction across Harrogate, and out to Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale, cut at the right time of year for the species. Every clipping cleared away. 28 years at it, rated 4.5 from 19 Google reviews.
- 28 yearsGardening since 1998
- NPTCApproved and DBS checked
- BS 3998Tree work standard
- 4.5 from 19Rated on Google
What we do
Harrogate hedges cut properly, at the right time of year
Hedge cutting in Harrogate, done the way a hedge actually wants to be cut. In town a hedge is doing a job that a fence is not allowed to do. Beech, yew, privet, laurel and box hold the line between two close neighbours, screen a front garden from the pavement, and on the villa streets they are often the only thing standing between a bay window and somebody's headlights. That means the finish matters as much as the cut, and it means the clippings have to be carried out through a side path or the house rather than dropped on a field edge. Every visit ends with the arisings raked up and taken away.
Out towards Knaresborough, Ripon and up into Nidderdale it is a different animal: long hawthorn and mixed boundary runs, roadside hedges, estate and paddock lines measured in hundreds of metres rather than tens, and conifer screens that have gone well past the roofline. Karen has been cutting hedges across this district for 28 years, established 1998, and does both ends of that scale. Trimming, reshaping, height and width reduction, lifting and topiary, on garden hedges and long estate boundaries alike.
A hedge left one season too long stops being a boundary and becomes a job. It leans over the path, it shades the border behind it, it takes the light off a lawn that then goes thin and mossy, and it gets quietly wider every year until the only way back is a hard cut into old wood. With some species that is fine. With others it is permanent, and that is the difference between a hedge you get back and a hedge you end up replacing.
Species first
Which hedges come back, and which never do
Knowing which is which is most of this job. Yew, beech, hornbeam, laurel, privet and hawthorn will all take a hard reduction and break back from old wood given a season or two. Leyland cypress, thuja and most other conifers will not: cut past the green into the brown and brown is where it stays. So we work out how far a hedge can safely be taken before a blade goes near it. Where a conifer hedge is genuinely past saving we say so straight, and we can take it out, deal with the stumps and put a new hedge or a newly planted border in its place instead of pretending another trim will fix it.
When to cut
Timing matters as much as technique
There is a legal side to it as well. It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to damage or destroy an active bird nest, and the RSPB puts the main nesting season between March and August, so we check a hedge before we start and move the visit if there is a nest in it. Formal evergreens such as yew and box hold their shape best cut in late summer. Beech and hornbeam are trimmed in August so they keep their copper leaves through winter, and fast conifer hedges usually want three to four cuts a year to stay flat and dense.
What customers say
Karen maintained my garden for years and did a fantastic job. She was helpful in providing advice on specific issues, always responsive to requests for different/additional services, was great at communicating, and the only reason I stopped using her was due to moving out of area. I'd highly recommend.
Emma H.
Google review
Conservation areas, price and clearing up
Cutting a hedge is not usually notifiable, but where a hedge line has grown up into mature trees in a conservation area the council has to be given six weeks of written notice before that work starts, and a tree under a Preservation Order needs consent. Karen tells you exactly what the council needs, so it is one less thing for you to work out.
What a hedge cut costs comes down to five things: the length and the finished height, the species and how hard it has to be taken back, access for ladders or a platform, how far the clippings have to be carried to the vehicle, and the volume of green waste leaving site. A ten metre garden hedge at chest height, cleared through the house, and a two hundred metre Dales estate boundary needing lifting over a drive are not the same job, so we do not price either off a phone call. Karen comes out, looks at it and puts a fixed price in writing at no charge. Seasonal contracts for regular cuts work out better value than calling us in once a hedge has run away.
Hocus Crocus is NPTC approved, fully insured, DBS checked and IOSH certified, and holds 4.5 stars from 19 Google reviews. Les Winterburn of Harrogate wrote: “Great team, really professional, fair prices and all the rubbish cleared up when they finish. Would not use anyone else.” That last part is the bit people remember. Hedge work makes an astonishing volume of green waste and all of it goes with us.
Where a hedge has grown into a tree, or there are limbs over a roof, a wall or a road, that is tree surgery worked to BS 3998 rather than hedge cutting, and we do both. If you would rather the hedges were simply part of a wider round, our regular garden maintenance visits take them in. We cut hedges right across Harrogate and the villages round it, east into Knaresborough, north around Ripon and the villages near it, and up the Nidd valley through Hampsthwaite and Birstwith. The rest of the patch is listed on our areas we cover page.
On the tools
What hedge cutting and reduction covers
Routine hedge trimming
Seasonal cuts that keep a hedge flat, dense and at the height you want, timed for the species rather than squeezed in whenever the diary allows.
Height and width reduction
Overgrown hedges brought back to a workable size, in stages where the species needs it, so the hedge recovers instead of going bare.
Lifting and reshaping
Lifting a hedge line clear of a drive, path or window, squaring up a wandering face and re-cutting the top so the whole run reads straight again.
Topiary and conifer shaping
Balls, cones, bells and spirals kept crisp. Conifers and evergreens shaped by eye and by frame, then maintained so the shape holds.
Hedge removal and replacement
Where a conifer hedge is beyond saving we take it out, deal with the stumps, and can put a new hedge or a newly planted border in its place.
Clearance and green waste
Every clipping raked, loaded and taken away, beds and paths swept. You should not be able to tell we were there, apart from the hedge.
Before and after
Hedges we have brought back
Real Hocus Crocus hedge jobs, photographed before the first cut and after the clippings had gone.
Question not answered below? Call Karen on 07816 779 064.
Before you book
Hedge cutting questions we get asked
When is the best time of year to cut a hedge?
Can you cut a hedge that has got too tall for me to reach?
Will a conifer hedge grow back if you cut it hard?
My neighbour's hedge blocks my light. What can I do?
Do you cut hedges in Harrogate conservation areas?
Do you take the clippings away?
Where we work
Covering Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and the whole of Nidderdale.
Karen is based near Knaresborough and works right across Harrogate and its villages, out to Knaresborough and Ripon, and up the whole of Nidderdale. Not on the list? Just ask.
- Harrogate
- Knaresborough
- Ripon
- Killinghall
- Hampsthwaite and Birstwith
- Boroughbridge
- Summerbridge and Dacre Banks
- Pateley Bridge
- Wetherby
Ready to get the hedges back under control?
Free site visit and an honest written quote, with no obligation. Call Karen on 07816 779 064 or email karen@hocuscrocus.com with a photo of the hedge.