Your gardener in Newent and the Leadon Vale

Newent sits in the Leadon Vale's orchard country — the town that once grew onions for half the county, with the stilted Market House at its middle and Newent Lake just off the centre. Gardens run from tight plots behind the black-and-white and Georgian frontages to family lawns on the newer estates at the town's edge, with smallholding-sized gardens and old fruit trees starting almost as soon as the houses stop.

The villages are part of the same round.

Clifford's Mesne, Gorsley and Kilcot

The south-west corner: Clifford's Mesne under May Hill, Gorsley strung along the ridge road towards Ross, and Kilcot between them — big hedges, orchard remnants, gardens that back onto grazing.

Oxenhall and the daffodil ground

Oxenhall sits in the wild-daffodil triangle north-west of town — ditch-and-bank gardens around old farmsteads, where the daffodils arrive before the mowing does.

Across the vale — Botloe's Green, Malswick, Upleadon and Highleadon

The Leadon side: Botloe's Green and Malswick close to town, Upleadon and Highleadon out among the meadows the river still floods — lawns here grow soft-ground tough.

Pauntley, Redmarley D'Abitot and Taynton

The far corners: Pauntley of Dick Whittington fame, Redmarley D'Abitot big enough for its own school run, and Taynton down the Gloucester road.

A lot of the older gardens come with a cider-apple or perry pear that has outlived whoever planted it — winter is the time to prune those, and I'd sooner keep one going than take it out. The rest is regular garden care: mowing, edges, borders, hedges cut and cleared, with Three Choirs Vineyard just north of town proving what the ground here can do.

Hedge cutting in Newent is the job that comes up most, long rural boundaries included, and what it costs is set out further down this page.

Hedge cutting in Newent

I cut hedges around Newent and out across the Leadon Vale, and the hedges here are mostly the working country sort rather than the clipped town sort.

The hedges around Newent

Newent sits in old orchard country, and the boundaries show it. Out towards Clifford's Mesne under May Hill, along the ridge road to Gorsley, and through Kilcot between them, the hedges are big — hawthorn and hazel with blackthorn and field maple through them, the kind of hedge that was laid to hold stock in and has been cut with a machine ever since. They back onto grazing, they are longer than a town hedge, and they are usually taller than the person who rang me about them.

A lot of them have old fruit trees grown into the line. A damson on the corner, an apple halfway along, left from when the orchard came right up to the boundary. Those stay. The hedge gets cut around them.

In the town itself it is a different job again. Behind the black-and-white and Georgian frontages the plots are tight, and the hedges are privet and beech kept close because there is no room to let them out. The newer estates at the edge of town brought in the usual conifer screening, and those are the ones people ring about with an apology attached.

Out on the Leadon side — Botloe's Green, Malswick, Upleadon, Highleadon — the land is meadow the river still floods, and the hedges there grow soft and fast on ground that holds water.

What I will and will not take on

Hedges, yes, including the long overgrown ones. What I do not do is take trees down, and I do not climb. If a hedge has stopped being a hedge and become a line of trees, I will say so and point you at somebody who does that properly, rather than take your money and make a poor job of it.

How I cut

Slightly wider at the base than the top, so light gets to the bottom and the hedge does not go bare underneath. Flat tops where it is doing a screening job, a rounder finish on a country hedge where it looks better and sheds weather. Sides back far enough that it lasts.

Clippings are bagged as I go and leave with me. On a long rural boundary that is a real part of the work, and it is included rather than extra. If you would rather keep the brash for a heap or a bonfire, say so and I will stack it.

Timing, and the one thing that stops a cut

Formal hedges want cutting twice through the growing season. Beech and hornbeam want one good cut in late summer. Hard reduction on a deciduous country hedge is winter work — the hedge is dormant, you can see what you are doing, and it comes back strongly in spring.

The exception that overrides everything is nesting birds, and the law about it has no dates in it: damaging a nest while it is in use is an offence whatever the month. Wood pigeons are still at it into October. That matters more here than in a town garden: these are exactly the thick, thorny, undisturbed hedges birds choose. I look before I start, and if there is a nest that stretch waits.

If you're looking for a gardener in Newent or anywhere in the vale around it, call 07443 797 834.

Looking for a gardener in Gorsley, or out towards Redmarley?

Both ends are covered, in practice — Gorsley sits between Newent and Ross and I work it either way, with Redmarley and the northern villages on the same round. Same service, same prices, whichever page you found me on.

Can you prune an old cider-apple or perry tree, and when's the right time?

Yes — winter into early spring, while the tree is dormant. Old orchard trees around Newent do best with a light prune each year rather than one heavy cut. I'll clear or stack the brash too.

It's a bare new-build garden on one of the newer estates — do you take on small regular visits?

Gladly. New-build gardens around Newent are usually quick visits to start with — lawn, edges, keeping the beds clean while things establish. Regular care is how they stop being bare.

How much does hedge cutting cost in Newent?

It is £30 an hour, and the clippings leave with me. A long rural boundary is a different job from a garden hedge, so I would rather walk it before putting a number on it.

The hedge has old fruit trees grown into it. Can you still cut it?

Yes, and it is common in the orchard country round Newent. The hedge gets cut and the trees get left, unless you want them brought back as well, which is dormant-season work rather than something to add to the same visit.