Width is harder to fix than height, and on some species it cannot be fixed at all. Worth knowing which yours is.
Four options: narrow it, reduce it in stages, replace it with something more suitable, or remove it and fence.
Which is available depends on the species. A hedge that regrows from old wood can be narrowed substantially. A conifer that has grown past its green cannot be narrowed at all without leaving a brown wall.
On a small or narrow garden this can add up to a surprising proportion of the useable space — which is usually why people start asking the question.
Where the hedge is both too tall and too wide, staging it makes a real difference. Height one year, one face the next, the other face the year after. Slower and more expensive across three visits, but it produces a hedge rather than a scarred remnant — and on a hedge that has been there thirty years, three years is not a long timescale.
Tell us what you need and we will arrange a free quotation.
| Consideration | Reality |
|---|---|
| Cost | Higher than reducing |
| Time to screen again | Three to five years |
| Space recovered | The most of any option |
| Choice | You pick a species that suits the space |
| Root removal | Substantial work; soil will be exhausted |
| Disruption | Considerable, but once |
| Suits | Conifers past their green; wrong plant for the position |
Replacement is the honest answer where the current hedge is simply the wrong plant. A leylandii planted as a quick screen in a small garden will always want to be twenty metres tall and two metres wide — reducing it is a permanent commitment to fighting it. Yew, hornbeam or a native mix in the same position needs a fraction of the maintenance and stays where you put it.
See what our hedge maintenance service covers in Hanham, or read more about the service across the areas we work in.
On species that reshoot from old wood — yew, privet, beech, hornbeam, laurel, hawthorn — yes, usually one face at a time across two seasons. Conifers generally cannot be narrowed.
Often a metre or more of depth, plus root spread, a dry shadow where little grows, and access space to cut it. In a small garden that can be a tenth of the plot.
Better not, on a severe reduction. One face, then the other the following year, gives the hedge time to respond.
When the current hedge is the wrong plant for the space — a leylandii in a small garden will always want to be twenty metres tall, and reducing it is a permanent commitment.
You recover the most space immediately and lose the maintenance, but also the screening height, wildlife value and softness. A fence with planting in front is a middle path.
Three to five years, depending on species and planting size.
The cut face will be bare for a season on most species. Deciduous hedges recover quickly; conifers may not recover at all.
It is their boundary too, and access to the far face is usually needed at some stage. Worth a conversation first.
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