Hedge trimming in Stockholm

When should the hedge be trimmed?

Formal hedges are normally trimmed twice a season: a main cut around midsummer, once the spring shoots have grown out but before they turn woody, and a lighter second cut in August–September that keeps the lines sharp into the winter. If you only trim once a year, July is the best time.

Informal hedges and hedges that only need keeping down can be cut once, late in the season. Deciduous hedges that are to be lowered or rejuvenated are cut back harder in late winter, in February–March, while they are dormant and before the birds start building nests. Avoid trimming late in October – new shoots that have not had time to harden off are killed back by frost.

May the hedge be trimmed during the nesting season?

All wild birds, along with their nests, eggs and young, are protected under the Swedish species protection ordinance, and the nesting season in the Stockholm area runs roughly from April to July. Trimming the hedge then is not forbidden, but you have to check first that there are no nests in it and stop if you find one.

Service Plus therefore always goes through the hedge before the machines start during that period. If we find an active nest we leave that part of the hedge untouched and come back once the young have fledged. That is one of the reasons to place the main cut around midsummer or later.

How tall is a hedge allowed to be?

Towards the street the municipality's rules apply. At an exit or a road junction the hedge should be kept at about 80 centimetres above the ground, so that visibility for drivers, cyclists and children is not blocked. Along the boundary the hedge also has to grow inside your own plot and not hang out over the pavement or cycle path, and branches over a footway should normally leave about 2.5 metres of clear height, over a carriageway 4.6 metres. The exact figures are in each municipality's guidance.

Towards a neighbour's plot there is no general height limit in law, but the Swedish Land Code gives the neighbour the right to ask for branches and roots that intrude and cause a nuisance to be removed. Tall hedges shared with a neighbour are therefore easiest to settle by agreeing on the height before the trimming is ordered.

How are different hedge species trimmed?

A hedge is always cut narrower at the top than at the bottom, with the sides sloping slightly inwards. That lets light reach the lower branches, so the hedge keeps its density all the way down to the ground instead of going thin and see-through at the base.

How hard a hedge can be cut varies a great deal between species:

• Privet: fast growing and very tolerant, trimmed twice a season and able to take being lowered hard
• Hornbeam and beech: tolerant deciduous hedges that can be taken in hard in late winter, and beech holds its brown leaves through the winter
• Thuja and other conifer hedges: only light trimming, within the green – cut into bare old wood and no new shoots appear, so the gap is permanent
• Yew: the one conifer used for hedging that puts out new shoots from old wood and can therefore be rejuvenated hard
• Spiraea, lilac and other informal shrub hedges: renewed by removing the oldest stems at the base rather than by topping the hedge

Can a hedge that is too tall or too thin be saved?

Usually yes, but how depends on the species. A deciduous hedge of privet, hornbeam or beech can be lowered substantially and will put out new shoots from the old wood. The work is done in February–March and often in stages: first the height comes down, the next season one side is taken in, the season after that the other. That way the hedge is never bare and keeps working as a screen in the meantime.

A thuja hedge that has grown too wide cannot be brought back the same way, because only the green layer can be cut. There it is a matter of holding it at the width it has or, if it is brown and thin at the base, replacing it. Our hedge specialist Tuja assesses the hedge on site and says plainly which of the options is realistic.

What does hedge trimming cost?

The price depends on the length and height of the hedge, how much is to be removed, whether the work needs a ladder or scaffolding, how accessible the hedge is and whether the cuttings are to be hauled away. A hedge trimmed every year goes faster than one that has grown freely for five seasons. Service Plus gives a free quote with a reply within 24 hours.

Private individuals get a RUT deduction (the Swedish tax deduction for household services) of up to 50% of the labour cost for hedge trimming on the plot of their home, and the deduction is taken straight off the invoice. Removal of the cuttings and transport to a recycling centre are not covered by RUT. Housing cooperatives and companies book the same work on seasonal contracts with one or two trims a year.