Usually yes — but how much depends almost entirely on what the hedge is, and the answer for a beech hedge is completely different from the answer for a Leylandii. This is the question worth settling before you plan anything.
How hedges eat gardens
It happens slowly enough that nobody notices. A hedge cut only on top puts on a few inches of width a year. Over fifteen years that is a foot or more on each face — two feet of border gone, and the loss is invisible year to year because it never changes much between one summer and the next.
The species question decides everything
Broadleaf hedges regenerate from old wood. Conifers, with the exception of yew, do not. That single difference is the whole answer.
| Hedge | How far back | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Beech / hornbeam | Hard, to the frame | Bare for a season, then thickens up well |
| Yew | Hard, even to bare wood | Slow but reliable recovery |
| Laurel | Hard | Regrows vigorously, often within one season |
| Privet | Hard | Very forgiving |
| Hawthorn / blackthorn | Hard | Recovers well; traditional practice |
| Holly | Hard, but patiently | Slower to fill back in |
| Leylandii | Green growth only | Anything past the green stays brown for good |
| Lawson, thuja, spruce | Green growth only | Same — no recovery from bare wood |
Doing it in stages
On a broadleaf hedge that needs a lot taking off both faces, the gentler approach is one side this year and the other side in two or three years' time. The hedge keeps working while it recovers, and it never looks completely bare.
It costs more overall than doing both at once, so it is a judgement about how much you mind the appearance in the meantime. If the hedge is screening something you would rather not look at, staging it is usually worth the extra.
The right time of year
Hard renovation on broadleaf hedges is best done in late winter, before growth starts — the hedge has the whole season ahead of it to recover, and there are no nesting birds to work around. Conifer work, which is trimming within the green rather than renovation, is more flexible.
On nesting birds, the position is narrower than most people think. It is not an offence to cut a hedge in spring or summer. The offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is damaging or destroying a nest that is in use or being built — so the hedge gets checked before the machine starts, and any section with an active nest waits.
The 1 March to 31 August ban you may have read about is a farming rule. It applies to hedgerows on agricultural land and expressly excludes anything within the curtilage of a house.
Taper the faces while you are at it
If the hedge is being cut back properly, this is the moment to put a slight batter on it — wider at the base than the top. It lets light reach the bottom of the hedge, which keeps the base green instead of going bare and leggy, and it slows the outward creep that caused the problem in the first place.
What you get back
More than people expect. Taking a foot off each face of a fifteen-metre boundary hedge returns thirty square feet of border. In a typical Bromsgrove garden that is a planting bed you did not know you had.
Want your border back?
Tell us what the hedge is and how far it has spread. We'll tell you honestly how much can come off.
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