In short
Cutting a garden hedge in summer is legal. What is illegal, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, is intentionally damaging or destroying a wild bird's nest while it is being built or used, and gov.uk lists an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison per offence. The RHS puts the nesting season at March to August, so I check every hedge for active nests before I cut in those months and hold off if I find one.
This is a job for my Hedge cutting service.
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What the law actually says
There is no law against trimming a garden hedge in summer. The rule that catches people is the one protecting birds: gov.uk's guidance on wild bird protection states it is an offence to intentionally take, damage or destroy a wild bird's nest while it is in use or being built, with a penalty of an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison for each offence. It names trimming or cutting trees, bushes, hedges and rough vegetation as work that can harm birds, particularly in the breeding season, and advises timing work to avoid it.
The RHS gives the nesting season as March to August, and notes it can run longer. Robins, blackbirds and song thrushes can be on eggs in a garden hedge by early March.
So when should a hedge be cut?
| Hedge | When I cut it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Formal privet, box, lonicera | Late spring and late summer, sometimes a third cut | The RHS lists these as needing two or three trims a year to hold their shape |
| Beech, hornbeam | Once, in late summer | One cut holds them until the next year |
| Leylandii and other conifers | Late spring to August, never later | The RHS warns that cutting conifers after August encourages bare patches |
| Hawthorn, mixed native, flowering hedges | Once, after flowering or in late winter | Keeps the flowers and berries for the birds |
You will notice most of those windows fall inside the nesting season, because that is when hedges grow. Avoiding March to August altogether is the safest option, and it is what the RHS recommends where you can, but for a formal hedge it is not practical. The answer is to cut carefully rather than not at all.
How I cut a hedge between March and August
- Before I start, I walk the hedge and look in it. A nest in use is obvious: a bird leaving the same spot as you approach, droppings below, calling from the hedge.
- If I find an active nest I leave that section, or the whole hedge, and come back once the young have fledged. The RHS advice is the same, and the fine is not worth the tidy line.
- I take off the new growth only, which is a light trim that does not open the hedge up.
- Where a customer can wait, I book the first cut for late August or September for deciduous hedges, and no later than August for conifers.
Farm and roadside hedges are different
The countryside hedgerow rules that stop farmers cutting between March and August do not apply to the hedge round your garden. But a lot of the properties I look after around Upwell, Outwell and Three Holes back on to field boundaries, and where a hedge is shared with farmland I treat it as a hedgerow and leave it until autumn.
If your hedge is overgrown and you are worried about leaving it until September, ask. In most cases I can take enough off safely now and do the proper shaping when the birds have finished.