wytco0

Hi All, sorry for late reply. We have now arranged for a friend of a friend and keen hedge layer to have a look and advise. Special thanks to those that offered to help, its good to know that there are local people with thees skills. I will come back to you later if we still need some work done.

I am actually thinking of planting some for exactly this reason but not in the 150m of hedge that i look after. It grows really well here in a very chalky soil.

Been discussing the elder with the other half, we don't really have that much now and she is very keen on keeping some of it for wildlife reasons. Must admit I do like watching the birds eating the berries.

Excellent thanks, I have also asked a tree surgeon I know but I am not sure if he does hedge work.

Yes I hate elder and I have been removing it, however it grows very quickly here !

Just west of Norwich postcode NR8.

Yes good point. Now I just need to find someone that can do it !

I am in Norfolk, the hedge is probably 100 years old and many of the plants in it are more like trees at the bottom. If it was younger and smaller I would love to lay it. I am a bit worried about the ivy as I think some of the hedge may be mainly ivy, I was thinking of tacking this over a few years hoping that the hedge would thicken once its under control then the ivy could be completely removed?

Hi all just joined to try and educate myself about looking after a hedge in my new garden I am responsible for 150m of hedgerow which has been neglected for many years, it consists of an assortment of native hedge plants (Hawthorne/field maple/Elder etc)and a lot of ivy. In places its about 5m high but the average is about 3.5m and I want to try and get it to about 3m and keep it under control. In some places there are branches of about 4-8cm that I need to cut and some of these are fairly high up. Last year I tried to tackle it with a hand saw, a ladder and some manual loppers but it took ages to do a small amount and I gave up. So I want to buy some decent tools to help but I am not sure what to get. Originally I thought a long reach hedge trimmer would be best, but once I have trimmed out all the long branches I could probably trim the hedge each year with a standard hedge trimmer and a ladder. I am worried that long reach trimmers might be a pain for trimming near the ground? but as I have never used one I don't really know. Alternatively I could go for a pole saw and a hedge trimmer attachment or maybe there are other alternatives? So grateful for any advice on how best to tackle the hedge and what sort of tools would be best. I am happy to pay for decent equipment and I would prefer to get stuff that's good quality and which will last a good few years. Thanks