Embarrassing - right height to cut a cherry laurel hedge...

I was tidying up around my lavender plants at our gate entrance this lunchtime, and one of my neighbours came over to talk to me. Now, we haven't lived here 5 years, so that in itself is very unusual.

He wanted to know when we would finish cutting our hedge?

We have a laurel hedge along the boundary with the road. I started to cut it in the springtime, but stopped
1) because the birds were starting to nest - a lovely blackbird nest in there!
2) I cut it too low in one bit, and hubby got a little annoyed with me

Could I finish cutting it now, so that they can enjoy the view of the woods on the other side of the valley, and the deer in the fields? Well, I can cut it so that they can see the woods, but the deer? Not unless they are in the upstairs window....

..of course, there is the added complication that there is a height specified by law for hedges, and this is well over that height. It always has been, since well before we moved in, although at one time it has been cut painfully low. I will cut it to the height we want it to be, and see if that is low enough for them. And when you are measuring the hedge, do you go for height from the road, or from the ground? (Garden is higher than the road by about 50cm...)
Hey ho - the difficulty of being a foreigner, and trying to keep the locals friendly!

 

It doesn't matter what country you are in Sian hedges will always cause problems. I think the deer have been used as an excuse to have your hedge lowered.

You need to cut it low enough to please the neighbours but if you don't you could find yourself reported and in trouble with the law. The chances are if you think you've cut it low enough your neighbours will want it regulation height, which is possibly why they've spoken to you about it anyway. You could ask them how much they want cut off and take it from there.

I would say it was from the base of the hedge which will be ground level.

 

Thanks @Sheal - I think you are right about the politics!

A friend of mine contacted the council for me (so no language prejudice started - she speaks near-native dutch). She was told the height is 1.50m, but "it's complicated, depending on where (!?!) in the commune you live, and how old the house is - so I'll send you the details via email".

So she forwarded the email to me, commiserating with me (we have other hedges that are 2.5m, 3.0m and higher!). However, when I read it, I saw a different answer. The only boundary divider we can have is living hedges - so no brick walls, fence panels, etc. The hedges may be supported/ enforced with a chain link fence, of no more than 1.5m, and a concrete base slab of no more than 0.3m. We have now checked with my friend's husband (from the Netherlands), and he confirms my interpretation of the rules. So, I will cut the hedge to 2metres from ground level, which means it will be about 2.5metres from the road...

I've done the inside of the hedge from the garden, but will wait to the weekend until I cut the final bits from the road (will need a step-ladder), so the neighbours will see what we are cutting to. Gulp! Not looking forward to that!!

 

You and me both! Hedges! Tell them when the birds have moved out of their nest, in the UK it's illegal to move/ disturb an active nest is it not? Hence me having to wait to cut trees down here! ( Pigeons) so that could be your excuse for now.
Also fences here are measured from the ground level of the owner of the fence... Hence why I can have 6 foot of fence on 4 foot of wall when viewed from the neighbours garden.
Even more lower down the garden. More like 6 foot of wall to 6 foot of hedge/ fence.
I think it's a case of keeping them happy enough for them not to come back sprouting numbers of hedge heights etc.
I'd chop a third off as from what I've read is that's all you should chop off per year.
It's always a difficult situation, 1.5m of hedge does nothing for privacy whereas the extra few cm for a 6 foot hedge makes a big difference

 

Good luck with the hedge @Sian. Will we see before and after pics?

A slight problem with that @Neil, garden birds don't breed this time of year.

 

I didn't realise anyone actually went out with a tape measuring how high someone hedge is, especially in rural locations.
I agree that hedges totally out of control can be a nightmare but do the rules apply to a hedge that gets cut, regularly, albeit, two inches higher than the law dictates.

 

Thanks for that, Shiney! I know that cherry laurel will eventually grow back, however hard you cut it, but I do want the boundary hedge to look good for my neighbours. The antagonism against economic migrants isn't as strong here as in the UK, but we do have to be that little bit more careful of people's sensibilities..... I have made a point to speak with my other across-road neighbour just this morning, to tell him what his neighbour said to me, and what we propose to do. Interestingly enough, he had all his extended family around to work in his garden, and they had just finished cutting one of his boundary hedges to about 2-2.25 metres!

The stupid thing is, the only thing I am certain of is that I cannot please everyone. If the authorities got involved, they would probably want us to rip out the cherry laurel completely, and plant a native hedge. I think we're OK for that though, as it is allowed to stay if it is more than 30 years old.... Because we are a high-level conservation area - a "Nature Area" - we have separate planning rules to the rest of the commune. I think it's to do with the midwife toads and other amphibians in the area? Heaven help us if they find out about all the young great crested newts I had to carefully move out of the way when I was clearing the rubble out of the eye bed!
I've only recently heard that you are not allowed to move them in the UK, so probably same applies here...!

 

Well, we started to do our first cut...
The family across the road offered us a loan of their 3 metre ladder, which made things much quicker. (We were cutting from about 3.5+ to about 2.75 metres, roadside, at the time)
Then the "complaining neighbours" came out to ask if we could cut it a bit lower. I said that we had to cut it lower v quickly, whilst we had the loan of the ladder, and would then do a second cut...
Mr ladder-man had to take his ladder, so we switched to our little ones.
We then cut the hedge again, taking off a further 25-35 cm. So it is about 2 metres from the ground, 2.25 from the road. We have shown willing with the neighbours, have a very tidy hedge, and both have lacerated arms from reaching across a deep hedge with loppers and secateurs to reach stems...

Time for a beer and some rugby!

 

Sounds like a good job has been done Sian. Could you feel your neighbours eyes boring into the back of your head with every cut, he was obviously waiting to pounce!

A beer and rugby well deserved I think.

 

Well, they were watching, and then they went out....

I've just double-checked the height of the hedge, and it is between 1,80 and 1,90 all the way along. I've spent the past hour or so tying bundles of cut laurel, ready for collection.

Here are some photos....where I cut it too short, earlier this year

Now trimmed, to about the same height

Here you can easily see the height before

And finally, from the street (this is the first time in well over 4 years that the speed-bump warning symbol has been visible!)

 

Thank you!!

Looking at the last photo, I am struck by the fact that the "hedge" continues down the road. No, honestly, it does!!

 

I wish my hedge was that pretty :(