Bit of market research!!

[JamesEarwaker]

Wanting to find out from yard owners/field owners their thoughts on there hedges, having dealt with quite a few yards ive had mixed reactions.
To me any professional livery/riding school, the hedges should be cut every year just to keep the place looking presentable for new customers etc but some have them cut every 2 years while others forget most years and then remember to do them and then most people dont even bother at all.

With everything it all comes down to money, would you prefer to pay for them to be cut every year? or every second year where it might cost more because the process takes longer or dont even bother at all because you cant spare the money? Plus if you do have a regular contractor would you be prepared to go to someone else if they offered to do it for cheaper so you get to save a few £££ ???

Sorry for going on a bit!

 

[Borderreiver]

We live on a smallholding and our hedges are cut every year.
However I think you will find that Defra would like us to cut them only every two or three years and those on Stewardship schemes have to follow this.

Our contractor who is in his seventies and has farmed all his life, is, shall we say, not in agreement with Defra. He reckons the older strong grown branches would break his machines. Anyway the overgrowth looks a mess to my view.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

We have hedges which border the road and I was under the impression that one HAD to cut them back every year; we've always done it every year without exception and its blimmin expensive!

One year we were a bit late doing ours coz the contractor's machine had broken and he couldn't get the part, so didn't start cutting locally till about now, and we had a snotty letter from the local council saying that someone had reported the fact that we hadn't done our hedges and would be please rectify asap.

So whether DEFRA in their high and mighty wisdom only want us to trim every year, seems not to matter a jot coz the local council/highways will be on your case if you don't!

 

[JamesEarwaker]

I understand some around are in these schemes where you can only cut every 2 years but they do look un-tidy, it takes longer to cut them so makes it more expensive for the customer in the end.

 

[Solstar]

ours are cut twice a year!

 

[martlin]

I have the hedges that are in Stewardship scheme cut every other year, following my scheme obligations; the Leylandi (SP) are cut twice a year though to keep them looking neat.
I have to say, though, it costs me roughly £30 a year, so not exactly life changing amount f money.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Nowadays, thank god, the whole point about how often and when to cut hedges isn't about whether they look tidy or not. It's about sustaining wildlife. Uncut hedges provide shelter and food to a huge variety of wildlife all year round so the priniciple behind cutting them back is to do the least harm. And if you think just another bunny hugger, try to imagine a world where all the songbirds have become extict so the insects are running riot and all the crops fail and everyone, 2 legs or 4, starves cheerfully to death whilst admiring the beautifully neat hedges up and down the length of the country. Biodiversity is what keeps us all in food and shelter. Already there are species becoming extinct left, right and centre, all over the world. One of these fine days, the rice crop will fail because of a new virus spread by an insect now uncontrolled because of blah blah blah. Please everyone, try to support your local wildlife as much as you can {climbs down off soapbox}.

 

[AngieandBen]

I haven't had my hedges cut for a few years now; It provides shelter for my ponies who live out and privacy so people can't see in!