A well-kept hedge on a bush-block boundary is dense at the bottom, green all the way through, no taller than it needs to be, and sitting with clear ground between it and the house. Everything we do with the shears is aimed at those four things.
What a boundary hedge does on a Maiden Gully block
The estates north of the Calder around Robin Hill and on the newer streets to the south-west have put a lot of houses close together in what used to be open bush. A hedge along the side fence gives back the privacy the block size took away and softens a run of Colorbond. Further out, on the lifestyle blocks past Monsants Road, hedges and windbreaks do a different job: they cut the dust and wind coming off the paddocks and shelter the house yard.
Then there is fire. A large part of Maiden Gully sits under the Bushfire Management Overlay, and the CFA's advice on vegetation near a home applies to hedges as much as trees. A hedge that is kept low, watered, cleaned of dead material inside and separated from the walls by a clear gap is a manageable thing. A tall, dry, neglected one running up to the eaves, especially a cypress or conifer, is a ladder for fire straight onto the roof. Trimming is what keeps a hedge in the first category, which is why we talk about height, density and the gap to the house on every job.
Quick answer
TB'S Trees does hedge trimming in Maiden Gully for formal and informal hedges of any length, shaped for privacy and kept low, clean and fire-sensible on overlay blocks. Ring 0498 609 887 to have yours quoted.
How we trim a hedge here
The species tell us most of what we need to know. Photinia is the workhorse of the estate boundaries, quick and happy to be cut twice a year. Lilly pilly is everywhere on the newer lots and takes shaping well, though the psyllid-pimpled leaves on some varieties mean we clean the trimmings up carefully. Pittosporum makes a fast screen and can be brought back hard. Viburnum and murraya suit the more sheltered gardens closer to Golden Square. Conifers and cypress, common on the older acreages as windbreaks, are the one group that will not regrow from old wood, so we trim only into green and never try to shrink them past it.
Formal hedges get straight faces and a level top, cut with a slight batter so the base is wider than the crown and light reaches the bottom growth. That batter is what stops a hedge going bare at the knees. Informal and native screens, like westringia or callistemon, are shaped rather than sheared so they keep their flowers and their bird traffic. Anything above head height is cut from platforms rather than a ladder on a slope, which matters on the undulating ground this suburb is built on.
- Spring flush hedges (photinia, lilly pilly, pittosporum): cut after the new growth hardens in late spring, again in early autumn.
- Conifers and cypress: one light trim a year into green growth, never into brown, and kept well clear of the house on overlay blocks.
- Native screens: shaped after flowering so you lose neither the show nor the honeyeaters.
- Reductions: a hedge that has got away is brought down in stages, hard cut in late winter, so it fills back in by summer.
Everything that comes off goes through the chipper. On a bush block we will happily leave the chip as mulch on the beds; dry clippings left in a heap beside the fence over summer are the last thing you want.
Maiden Gully conditions that shape hedge work
Three things about this suburb change how hedges grow. The first is the ground: shallow, stony goldfields soil that drains fast and holds little, so hedges need mulch and a drip line to stay dense. The second is the weather. Summers are hot and dry, and the gully country the suburb is named for pools cold air on still winter nights, so frost-tender plants at the low end of a block can be nipped back each year. The third is age. A lot of Maiden Gully hedges were planted in the last decade as the estates filled in and are still establishing, which is the moment for formative trimming: a light cut early and often builds the tight, bushy base you can never get back by cutting hard later.
Where hedges meet remnant trees things get more interesting. A photinia row under a retained yellow gum will always be thin on the shaded side, and a screen planted hard against a bush reserve boundary needs to be treated as part of the fuel around the house, not separate from it. If a boundary tree rather than a hedge is the problem, tree pruning in Maiden Gully or, for an overgrown row of trees masquerading as a hedge, Maiden Gully tree lopping done as a proper reduction is the right service.
A typical hedge visit
Say it is a forty-metre photinia run down the side boundary of an estate lot off Golf Links Road, last cut a year ago and now over two metres. Two of us arrive with the chipper. The top comes down to the height you want, usually just above the fence, to a string line. Both faces are cut back to firm growth with the batter set, dead material inside the hedge is pulled out by hand, and the base is cleared so air moves through. Trimmings are raked, chipped and either spread on the beds or taken away. A hedge like that is a morning's work. If a stump from an old tree is in the way of the trimmer, stump grinding in Maiden Gully can be added to the same visit.
The same crew keeps hedges along the Calder corridor, so hedge trimming in Marong, Golden Square and hedge trimming in Eaglehawk often share a day with Maiden Gully jobs. See the main hedge trimming page and the Maiden Gully suburb page for the rest of what we do.
Hedge questions from Maiden Gully gardens
Get the hedge sorted before summer
Call TB'S Trees on 0498 609 887 for a free quote on hedge trimming in Maiden Gully. Tell us the species and rough length and we will tell you when to cut it.