Your gardener in Thornbury and the Severn Levels

Thornbury sits in an open bowl, closed in by higher ground to the south, east and north, and opening west and north-west towards the Severn estuary. The town averages around 43 metres above sea level, and the ground either side of it does not: the Levels below start at ten metres or less, and the ridge above climbs to about a hundred. Ninety metres of height inside a few miles of one town is the reason there is no single answer to what grows here.

Underneath the bowl and the ridgeline that frames it is Old Red Sandstone, with marl and clay taking over across the ground around them. That is a different proposition from the Cotswold limestone an hour north, and it wants a different approach.

The town — the old plots and the new estates

Thornbury's medieval core was laid out along two main streets and their crossing, under a charter of 1252, and the plots behind those streets are still long, narrow and enclosed — deep, often walled, and awkward to get a machine into. Then the population went from 12,063 to 14,496 between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, almost all of it on the eastern side. So within one town there are gardens that have been settled for centuries and gardens whose owners are still deciding what to put in them, and they need opposite things: one wants restraint, the other wants establishing. Upper and Lower Morton and Grovesend sit in the parish alongside.

Down on the Levels — Oldbury-on-Severn, Hill and Rockhampton

West and north-west the ground drops onto the Oldbury Levels, at or below ten metres, on alluvial gley soils that are seasonally waterlogged by definition. Gardens here sit wet through winter whatever you do, which rules out a good deal of the dry-and-gravelly planting that is fashionable elsewhere. The field boundaries are often rhines — drainage ditches — with hedges alongside, and a grass sea-wall embankment beyond, so a boundary here can be a watercourse rather than a fence. The standing work is old orchard trees and overgrown leylandii screens rather than fine borders — and leylandii is the one hedge where cutting it back hard does not grow back, so the plan matters before the saw comes out. Littleton-upon-Severn, Cowhill and the strung-out line of farms at Hill sit on the same flat.

The ridge villages — Alveston, Olveston and Tockington

South and south-west the Severn Ridges climb from the Levels' edge to about a hundred metres, and the villages sit on the lower slopes and scarp. Carboniferous limestone has been quarried around Olveston for centuries, and it shows in the boundaries: stone walls rather than hedges, low around the cottages and over two metres around the larger houses. That changes what the work is. A round here is beds, borders and edges rather than hedge lengths, and a high wall gives you deep dry shade on one side and a baked strip at its foot on the other. Rudgeway, Tockington and Elberton are the same ground.

East along the A38 — Tytherington and Milbury Heath

East of the A38 the land rises again onto the Tytherington ridge. Tytherington itself is marked by tall Pennant sandstone boundary walls beside its disused quarry workings, and Milbury Heath is a local high point looking west over the Severn Vale and north into the Vale of Berkeley. Exposed, and the walls are the local material again rather than the limestone of the villages to the south. Falfield sits north on the A38, in vale ground of its own.

Follow the A38 the other way and the vale runs south into the edge of Bristol, where the gardens sit tighter and steeper.

Two jobs come up more than any others here: lawn mowing and lawn care in Thornbury, where the Levels and the ridge run to different calendars, and hedge cutting in Thornbury, including the rhine-side boundaries and the leylandii screens that come with them. What each of them costs is answered further down this page.

Lawn mowing and lawn care in Thornbury

I mow lawns in Thornbury, down on the Levels and up in the ridge villages — and those are three different jobs that happen to share a postcode.

One town, three mowing calendars

Thornbury sits in a bowl at about forty-three metres. The Levels below it start at ten metres or less; the ridge behind it climbs to about a hundred. Ninety metres of height inside a few miles is why there is no single right answer to how often your grass needs cutting here.

On the Levels the soil is alluvial gley and it is seasonally waterlogged by definition. Damp ground feeds grass, so lawns out at Oldbury-on-Severn, Littleton-upon-Severn and Rockhampton keep growing through the dry spells that stop everything else. Up on the ridge at Alveston, Olveston and Tockington the ground is thin over Carboniferous limestone, it drains fast, and in a dry July the lawn simply stops. Same round, same week, opposite instructions — and a lawn that has gone dormant in a drought wants leaving alone, not cutting shorter.

The lawn that starts the year underwater

Winter on the Levels is not a mowing problem, it is a recovery problem. Ground that sits wet for months cannot take a machine: cutting it tears the turf and leaves wheel ruts that are still visible in June. The right order is to stop later in the autumn than you would inland, wait until the ground carries weight again, then put the tired patches right before the season's growth starts covering for them.

Town plots, and the estates on the east side

The medieval plots behind the two main streets are long, narrow and enclosed — often walled, and often reachable only down a side passage. That is an access question rather than a grass question, and it is worth saying up front: I carry kit that goes through a standard gateway, and if the only route in is through the house I will bring the smaller machine.

The eastern side of the town is the newer half — Thornbury grew from 12,063 people to 14,496 between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, and nearly all of that went up on that side. Those lawns are young turf still rooting in, and young turf wants cutting high and often rather than short and occasionally. Cut a new lawn tight in its first summer and you will spend the next one repairing it.

What a visit includes

The cut, the edges, and the clippings bagged and taken away. Edges are not an extra. On the strong growth down near the water they are the difference between "cut" and "tidy", and they are the first thing to slip when a lawn is done in a hurry.

If a border has run onto the grass, or there is trimming to do while I am there, that gets sorted as part of the visit.

Hedge cutting in Thornbury

I cut hedges in Thornbury and out across the Levels, where a boundary is often a ditch with a hedge beside it rather than anything you can walk around.

Out on the Levels, the boundary is usually water

West and north-west of the town the ground drops onto the Oldbury Levels, at or below ten metres. Field boundaries here are frequently rhines — drainage ditches — with the hedge running alongside and a grass sea-wall embankment beyond. That is the practical fact of the job: on one face you cannot stand where you would want to, the cuttings cannot simply be dropped, and the work takes longer per metre than the same hedge would in the middle of a garden.

It is worth knowing before you compare quotes, because a price that assumes flat access either does not hold or means the far side is not really being cut.

Leylandii, and the cut you cannot take back

The standing hedge work around Oldbury-on-Severn, Cowhill, Littleton-upon-Severn and Hill is old orchard trees and overgrown leylandii screens rather than fine ornamental borders. Leylandii is the one that catches people out: cut into the bare old wood and it does not come back, so a screen that has been left too long cannot simply be taken down to the size you wish it were.

There is usually still a good answer — reducing over more than one year, taking the top before the sides, or accepting a height and holding it properly from now on. What there is not is a way to undo ten years in one afternoon. Cutting a hedge back hard sets out where the line is, and I will tell you which side of it your hedge is on before anything starts.

Up on the ridge it is often not a hedge at all

South and east of the town the villages sit on limestone and Pennant sandstone, and the boundaries there are walls rather than hedges — low around the cottages at Olveston and Tockington, over two metres around the larger houses, and tall again beside the old quarry workings at Tytherington. If your boundary is a wall, hedge cutting is not what you need, and I would rather say so than sell you a visit.

What those gardens do want is the beds, borders and edges kept in order, and the deep dry shade on one side of a high wall planted with something that will actually live in it. That work is part of the Thornbury round.

Timing

Late summer into autumn is the straightforward window, and the last hedge cut of the year explains why leaving it too late costs you. Through the nesting season a hedge gets checked first — the rules, and what checking actually means, are in hedge cutting and nesting birds.

If you're after a gardener in Thornbury, out on the Levels or up on the ridge, call 07443 797 834.

The garden is wet all winter and nothing I plant survives it. Is that fixable?

On the Levels, not really — and that is worth knowing rather than fighting. The ground there is alluvial gley, which is seasonally waterlogged by its nature, so the honest answer is to plant for it instead of draining against it. Plenty will grow in ground that sits wet; the gravel-and-Mediterranean look will not. I would rather tell you that than sell you a border that dies every February.

Looking for a gardener in Oldbury-on-Severn, or anywhere out on the flat?

Yes — the Levels villages are part of the same round as the town, at the same prices. The work out there tends to be old orchard trees and overgrown leylandii screens more than fine borders, and I am set up for both.

There's a two-metre stone wall down one side and nothing does well near it. Why?

Because it is two gardens, not one. The shaded side stays dry as well as dark — a wall keeps rain off the ground at its foot — and the sunny side gets the heat back off the stone on top of the sun it already had. Around Olveston and Tockington those tall limestone walls are the normal boundary, so it comes up a lot. Different planting each side is the fix, not more watering.

How much does lawn mowing cost in Thornbury?

A one-off cut with the edges done is from £25, clippings bagged for your green bin. The Levels and the ridge villages come into growth at different times, so the first cut of the year is rarely the same week for both.

How much does hedge cutting cost in Thornbury?

It is £30 an hour, and the clippings leave with me. Length, height and how long it has been left decide the total, so I would rather see it than quote blind.

My leylandii has got out of hand — can you cut it right back?

Down to a height you can keep, yes. Leylandii will not reshoot from bare brown wood, so the sides come in as far as there is still green on them and the top comes down to where you want it. What cutting a hedge back hard actually involves.