Routine cuts, done properly, on every species Deal actually grows.

What's included

• Top, sides and front face cut to your chosen height and width
• All arisings cleared from site and disposed of properly, either through my DDC Garden Waste route or as commercial-volume loads through my FCC Kent trade waste account
• Brush-down of the pavement, path or driveway underneath
• Six-week s.211 notice filed with Dover District Council on your behalf if you're in one of the seven Deal or Walmer conservation areas and the hedge has any stem 75mm or over at 1.5m
• Fixed price quoted in advance — no day-rate creep

Species I actually work with in Deal

The species mix here is defined by how far you are from the shingle. Salt-tolerance rank from most to least: Tamarix, Olearia traversii, Escallonia, Griselinia littoralis, Euonymus japonicus, Pittosporum, Olearia macrodonta. Beech, yew and hornbeam fail the seafront but do well inland at Mill Hill and Sholden.

• Privet, box, euonymus — the Middle Street and Beach Street front-strip staple. Low, clipped, formal. Two light cuts a year (June and late August, after nest check).
• Escallonia — best clippable front-line evergreen in Walmer villa gardens. Late spring and August.
• Tamarix — the classic Walmer and Kingsdown seafront hedge (RHS AGM). Feathery, hard to over-cut; late winter reshape then a light August tidy.
• Griselinia littoralis — salt-tolerant but browns after a cold easterly winter. Cut once damage stops (late April), then again mid-August.
• Laurel — inland dominant; scorches on Beach Street so I'll usually steer you off it front-line. Late summer, secateurs on visible faces to avoid bruising.
• Yew, beech, hornbeam — Mill Hill and Sholden only, single late-August cut.
• Native hawthorn and blackthorn — the Kingsdown clifftop and golf-course windbreak species. Winter only (September to February) to comply with WCA s.1.

Nesting window and the May–July question

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 s.1 makes it an offence to damage an active nest — up to £5,000 per nest and six months. Season runs 1 March to 31 August. Between May and July I only take on formal evergreens (privet, box, yew, escallonia) and only after a proper nest check on the day. If nests are present the job waits. This isn't a preference, it's the law, and Kingsdown clifftop hedges in particular sit next to the Kingsdown-to-Dover-Cliffs SSSI where chalk-grassland nesting species use the boundary scrub.

Seafront access and the Middle Street reality

Middle Street and Beach Street front gardens are sub-1m strips with low box or euonymus over pavement-height railings. No ladder access is possible in those lanes — the work is done off the pavement with a step-and-shears approach, which is why I only quote after seeing photos. Walmer villas by contrast have larger Victorian plots with mature hawthorn, holly and yew; on those I check for the 75mm stem threshold at 1.5m before quoting because a s.211 notice adds six weeks to the schedule.

Green-waste route

Small residential volumes leave on the same day. If your household is on the DDC Garden Waste subscription (£66.20 a year for a 240L bin plus a £42.25 one-off bin loan, fortnightly collection with up to 25 pickups a year and roughly a two-week Christmas pause), I can bag or load into the bin. Commercial-volume loads go to Dover Recycling Centre at Honeywood Road, Whitfield CT16 3EH (slot booking required, KCC permit for vans and trailers), or through my FCC Kent trade waste account for larger jobs.

Pricing

Most routine cuts across Deal, Walmer, Kingsdown, Mill Hill and Sholden fall in the £120 – £400 range depending on hedge length, height and access. Fixed price after photos and postcode. No charge if the quote isn't accepted.

What I don't do on cutting jobs

If a hedge is overgrown, gappy, one-sided from the easterly wind, or has outgrown the position, that's a reduction job, not a cut. I'll tell you at quote stage rather than do a botched cut and pretend it solved the problem.