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Hedgeline's Code of Practice for Hedge Growers

  • Before you lay claim to very high levels of privacy for yourself, think what this may mean to your neighbour. A hedge has two sides to it and concerns your neighbour as much as yourself. If your neighbours come to see you about your hedge, then they have a reasonable cause for complaint about it. Listen carefully to what they have to say about your hedge. It is very likely to be causing them severe problems and they have every right to make these known to you.

  • Always make sure that your hedge is suitable for your neighbour's property and that it :-
    1. does not oppress your neighbours or give them cause to feel shut-in by dark high walls;
    2. is not so high as to take their light;
    3. does not take sunlight from their windows or garden, especially in the winter months when the sun is low and no one wants extra gloom;
    4. is not likely to suck their soil dry, and spoil their gardening;
    5. is not likely to cause subsidence or in other ways damage their property;
    6. does not give them a hazardous or impossible job when it comes to trimming time, (trimming a hedge much above head height, without a rigid platform, is recognised to be unsafe and this will be confirmed by nearly all professional tree experts).
    7. is not likely to make their house unattractive to potential buyers if it is put on the market.

  • Look around you. See the heights which the vast majority of people choose to have for the hedges in their own gardens of corresponding size to yours. These are common-sense heights and you should not be forcing a higher hedge on an unwilling neighbour. A two metre hedge is quite a reasonably sized hedge, and in many situations a hedge any higher than this would certainly cause some of the problems for your neighbour.

  • It is also worth considering whether your hedge takes away a long enjoyed and cherished view from anyone in your neighbourhood.

  • Remember that a properly maintained hedge at a mutually acceptable height will provide benefits for you and your neighbours for many years.



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