Guides
Every guide here is organised around when things happen through the year, or through a multi-year process, not a flat checklist. Written by a working contractor, cited against the actual law.
Seasonality
The full year, month by month, for the Medway towns' mix of estuary-exposed and inland gardens.
Read the guideReduction
Why a hard leylandii reduction needs two winters, and exactly what happens in each one.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
What actually happens, week by week, after you file a formal complaint with Medway Council.
Read the guidePlanting
Bare-root versus container, the real planting window, and a year-by-year timeline to a working boundary.
Read the guideAftercare
When to feed, mulch, water and check an established hedge through the year, from the February feed to the winter structural review.
Read the guideSpecies
Match hawthorn, beech, yew, laurel or a native mix to your soil and exposure, then follow what happens each year.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
Who owns the boundary hedge, what you can cut without permission, and the step-by-step path from self-help to formal complaint across ME1-ME8.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
What the six-week written notice under section 211 means for hedge and tree work in Medway's conservation areas, from address check to work day.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
Which trees in a hedge need a section 211 notice, and how to give Medway Council that notice: address check, size test, what to send, the six-week wait and the two-year window.
Read the guideAftercare
What to check, when to cut and how long recovery takes after gale damage, from the safety check to the first shaping cut, with RHS advice and the nesting and notice rules.
Read the guideAftercare
When to check, treat and prevent box tree moth, box blight, aphids and scale insects across ME1-ME8 gardens, month by month through the year.
Read the guideReduction
How to bring back a neglected hawthorn, privet, blackthorn or native mixed hedge across ME1-ME8, one side at a time over two winters.
Read the guideSeasonality
When to clip box balls, yew cones, hornbeam cubes and shaped hedges across ME1-ME8, month by month from the Derby Day first cut to the main August yew trim.
Read the guideSeasonality
When to trim, when to renovate and why the secateurs-versus-trimmer choice makes such a visible difference on Medway's most common garden hedge.
Read the guideSeasonality
How many times a year to cut a privet, the nesting rules that bite hardest on Chatham's terrace hedges, and the winter renovation window for overgrown privet across ME1-ME8.
Read the guideSeasonality
The once-a-year late August window for Taxus baccata, the nesting season as it applies to dense evergreen yew, and how to renovate an overgrown specimen.
Read the guideSeasonality
The single late-August window, the nesting season as it applies to dense beech, and renovation timing for neglected hedges.
Read the guideSeasonality
The early-September main cut, why hornbeam copes with wet ground better than beech, and how to manage a Carpinus betulus hedge across ME1-ME8 through the year.
Read the guideSeasonality
The three-cut-a-year schedule for one of Medway's most popular boundary hedges: the spring red-flush cut, the mid-August hard stop, the nesting check and how to rescue an overgrown specimen.
Read the guideSeasonality
Derby Day first cut, August second trim, blight-safe technique and box tree moth awareness: the full cutting calendar for Buxus sempervirens hedges across ME1-ME8.
Read the guideSeasonality
The once-a-year late-summer window, the nesting closure as it bites dense Ilex, renovation timing for overgrown specimens, and why tool choice matters on spiny holly leaves across ME1-ME8.
Read the guideSeasonality
The berry-safe cutting schedule for one of Chatham's most common security and boundary hedges: the August hard stop, the flowering window to leave alone, and the February renovation cut for overgrown specimens across ME1-ME8.
Read the guideSeasonality
The January-February structural window, the nesting closure that bites hardest on hawthorn, the post-blossom June trim and why cutting in October removes the haws that fieldfares need across ME1-ME8.
Read the guideSeasonality
The late August post-flowering cut, frost awareness through the winter months, and how to renovate a leggy escallonia hedge on Medway's exposed estuarine plots.
Read the guide