Reducing a hedge that's grown too tall: what's realistic

Whether a tall hedge can be brought back down depends almost entirely on what it is made of. Yew, beech, hornbeam, holly, hawthorn, box and privet will shoot again from bare old wood, and the RHS says species that respond well to renovation can be reduced by as much as half their height and width in a single cut. Leyland cypress and most other conifers, including cupressus and chamaecyparis, will not re-shoot from old wood, so anything you cut back into the brown interior stays brown for good. Get that one fact straight and the rest of the decision follows: a tolerant hedge can be reduced, phased over two or three seasons if you are taking a lot; an intolerant conifer hedge can only be trimmed within its green skin, or taken out and replaced.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.

Which species take a hard cut

Will regrow from old wood: yew, beech, hornbeam, holly, hawthorn, box, privet, Lonicera nitida, laurel and Portuguese laurel. Yew is the exception among conifers and the reason old yew hedges can be cut back to bare stems and come back.

Will not regrow from old wood: Leyland cypress, cupressus, chamaecyparis, thuja and most other conifers. Cut past the green and you have a permanent bare patch or a flat brown top.

In between: escallonia, pyracantha and photinia usually recover from a moderate hard cut but are less predictable. If the hedge is already thin, sickly or drought-stressed, do less than you think and feed and water it first.

If your hedge is Leylandii, read Leylandii hedge removal, which covers the same ground in more detail for that species.

How much to take in one go

For a species that tolerates renovation, the RHS position is that up to half the dimensions can come off at once, and that more drastic renovation should be carried out gradually. Where you are going further than half, the RHS sets out a three-stage plan over two or three years:

1. Year one: cut back the width on one side only.
2. Year two: cut back the width on the other side.
3. Year three: reduce the height.

Each stage gets a full growing season to recover, and the hedge keeps enough leaf area to feed itself throughout. It takes longer, but it is the difference between a hedge that comes back thick and one that never quite does. Either way, cut to a sound stem rather than leaving stubs, feed and mulch afterwards, and water in a dry spring.

The brown-wood problem, and what it looks like afterwards

Be ready for the hedge to look bad for a while. Taking a tolerant evergreen back hard exposes a skeleton of brown stems, and it takes a full growing season, sometimes two, before green growth covers it. Yew is slow and worth the wait, laurel and privet come back quickly, and beech and hornbeam are bare in winter anyway so the work shows less. On a conifer hedge the same cut produces brown that never goes, which is why the honest advice for a Leylandii hedge that has to lose half its height is usually removal and replanting.

Reducing the height of a wide old hedge also reveals how wide it has become, so plan the shape and not just the height. A hedge that tapers slightly, wider at the base than the top, keeps light on its lower growth and stays greener at the bottom.

Timing, and nesting season

The RHS advice is to renovate deciduous hedges in mid-winter and evergreens in mid-spring, and to check first that there are no nesting birds in the hedge.

That check is a legal one, not a courtesy. It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while it is in use or being built. Dense hedges are prime nesting habitat, and the main season runs roughly from March to August, though birds nest outside it too; see hedge cutting in nesting season. Bats also roost in old hedges and mature hedge trees, and all bat species and their roosts are protected, so work stops if a roost is found; see wildlife and bats in tree work.

If it is the neighbour's hedge

You cannot go onto someone else's land or cut their hedge to a height you prefer. What you can do is cut back growth that crosses the boundary onto your side, back to the boundary line, which is covered in cutting a neighbour's overhanging branches. Working out whose hedge it is in the first place is in who owns a boundary hedge.

Beyond that there is the high hedges route, under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. A council can consider a complaint about a hedge that is a line of two or more trees or shrubs, mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen, over two metres tall, forming a barrier to light or access even if there are gaps, on someone else's land, and adversely affecting the reasonable enjoyment of your home or garden. Before going down that road:

• You must have tried to settle it with your neighbour first. The council can reject the complaint if it thinks you have not taken all reasonable steps.
• Councils usually charge a fee to consider a complaint, and it is generally not refunded even if you win.
• The council can order the hedge to be reduced and kept that way. It cannot order removal, and it cannot require the hedge to be cut below two metres.
• Either side can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
• Failing to comply with a remedial notice is punishable with a fine of up to £1,000, and the council can enter the land and do the work.

Reduce, or take it out and replant?

Reduction is the right call when the hedge is a tolerant species, still green through its depth, and only a bit too big. Removal and replanting is usually better when the hedge is conifer and has to lose more than its green skin, when it is already bare at the base or on one side, when it has outgrown the space in width as well as height, or when the annual trimming bill has quietly overtaken what a new hedge would cost to establish. If you replant, pick something you can keep at the height you want: yew, beech, hornbeam, holly, privet or a mixed native hedge all take regular cutting without sulking.

What it costs

Indicative ranges from our price card, waste included.

There is a £150 job minimum, and anything over £1,200 or more than 30 metres of hedge goes to a free survey first. Height, access and what is on the other side all move the price. If the hedge comes out, budget separately for grinding the row of stumps.

We are an introducer. We pass your enquiry to one vetted local specialist covering your area, and they confirm a fixed price. Start with hedge reduction if the hedge is staying, hedge trimming for a routine cut, or hedge removal and the hedge removal cost guide if it is going.