Hedge Maintenance Services
Keeping your hedges healthy and looking their best
Hedge maintenance really comes down to two different approaches with very different goals. One-time pruning fixes problems that have already developed—size that's gotten out of hand, damage from storms, or years of neglect. Ongoing care keeps the hedge at its established size and prevents those problems from developing in the first place. Most properties need one to get things back on track, then the other to keep them there.
Here's the thing: these two approaches affect your hedge differently. When you cut an overgrown hedge back by three feet, the plant responds with vigorous new growth to replace what it lost. But maintaining a hedge at its current size through annual light trimming produces minimal regrowth because the plant isn't stressed. Properties often start with correction work to establish the right size, then switch to annual maintenance that takes less time and triggers less dramatic response from the plant.
One-Time Pruning vs. Ongoing Care
Choosing the right approach for where you are now
One-time work makes sense when you need to reset hedge size, remove damage, or shape newly installed plants. We see this most often on newly purchased properties where the hedge hasn't been touched in years, or when someone wants to bring an overgrown hedge back down to a manageable size. The work is more intensive than routine care—you might be removing 12 to 18 inches or more, opening up dense growth to let light reach the interior, and creating the tapered shape that keeps lower branches healthy.
Be prepared for visible change. A hedge that goes from eight feet to five feet looks noticeably different right away, and the plant will push out extra growth the following season as it works to fill back in. You'll see some bare or thin spots immediately after cutting, but coverage typically returns within 8 to 12 months depending on the species and conditions.
📅 One-Time Correction Work
When you need it: Hedge blocking windows or walkways, years without maintenance, new property with neglected hedges, storm damage, switching from a previous contractor's approach to something more natural.
What it does: Brings size down by 15-40% depending on what the plant can handle. Establishes the tapered shape (bottom wider than top) that's essential for long-term health. Opens dense outer growth so light reaches interior branches. Removes dead, diseased, or damaged wood. Creates a clean baseline for future care.
Best timing: Late spring after new growth hardens (June) or late summer (August). Avoid fall when cuts won't heal before winter.
🔄 Ongoing Maintenance Programs
When you need it: Hedge already at the right size just needs upkeep, formal hedges requiring regular shearing, privacy hedges where you need to maintain dense coverage, or you just want hands-off care without having to schedule it yourself.
What it does: Keeps established size with minimal plant stress. Prevents the gradual creep that eventually requires correction. Maintains form and density through light annual work. Catches problems early — gaps, disease, damage — before they get serious.
How often: Once a year for most informal hedges (June or August). Twice yearly for formal sheared hedges (June and August). Three times if you want very formal geometric precision (May, July, September).
Most properties benefit from both. Initial correction gets the size right. Annual maintenance keeps it that way with less effort and lower cumulative cost. The alternative—letting things gradually overgrow for years, then correcting, then letting it happen again—costs more over time and creates bigger swings in how the hedge looks.
Shaping Methods: Shearing vs. Hand Pruning
Formal geometric versus natural flowing forms
✂️ Formal Shearing
Best for: Boxwood parterres, geometric yew hedges, formal property boundaries, traditional architecture, situations where precise height control matters.
What's involved: Electric or manual hedge shears cutting to string lines. Work bottom to top keeping a visible taper. Multiple passes for even surfaces.
Be realistic: Requires 2-3 shearings per season to maintain crisp formal appearance. Each session is quick but you need more of them. That dense outer shell will eventually need interior thinning every 3-4 years to prevent lower branches from dying back.
🌿 Hand Pruning Natural Form
Best for: Informal privacy screens, naturalistic landscapes, cottage gardens, hedges under trees, situations where you want low maintenance over geometric precision.
What's involved: Bypass hand pruners cutting individual branches to where they meet other branches. Follow the plant's natural shape. Create an irregular, slightly mounded top with gently sloped sides.
The advantage: Needs one pruning per season (June or August). Takes more time per session but less frequent attention. Interior stays more open so light penetrates and lower branches stay healthy without separate work.
How you shape a hedge makes a big difference in how it looks and how much care it needs going forward. Shearing with hedge trimmers creates those crisp formal geometric shapes—flat tops, precise edges, traditional elegance. Hand pruning with bypass pruners creates natural flowing forms that look like the hedge just grows that way. Both work beautifully, but they require different commitments.
Here's what's happening beneath the surface: shearing cuts through everything at a uniform plane, creating many small wounds and stimulating dense twiggy growth right at the cut surface. Over time the hedge develops a tight outer shell. Hand pruning makes selective cuts at branch junctions, directing growth to specific points and producing less dense, more natural regrowth that doesn't create that impenetrable layer.
Be honest about what you can keep up with. Formal sheared hedges need multiple sessions every year—they can't be maintained casually once a year without losing that geometric character. Hand-pruned natural hedges are fine with annual or even biannual care and still look intentional. Both approaches work beautifully when matched to realistic schedules.
A boxwood hedge we worked with was maintained with formal shearing three times per season for years, creating a crisp rectangle along the front walk. When the property changed hands, the new owner kept up with it only once yearly. Within two seasons the geometric form was gone — it became rounded and irregular because single annual maintenance just can't preserve that formal precision. The owner ultimately embraced the informal rounded look, which now gets appropriate once-yearly hand pruning and looks natural rather than neglected.
1–3×
Annual frequency by hedge formality
6–10"
Bottom taper wider than top
8–12 mo
Coverage recovery after size correction
Improving Density for Privacy Hedges
Getting thickness and filling gaps
🌱 Building Density Through Taper
The principle: Light has to reach all levels for all levels to keep their foliage. This requires the bottom to be wider than the top — typically 6 to 10 inches wider on each side for hedges 4 to 8 feet tall. This visible taper ensures lower branches get adequate sun even when upper branches are in full leaf.
Creating taper on existing hedges: Reduce the top width more than the lower width over two to three seasons. Each time you prune, maintain or increase that difference. Never let the top get as wide as the bottom. Lower branches respond to the increased light by producing denser growth, filling in the bottom zone that was sparse.
Timeline: You'll see lower density improving within one growing season. Full restoration of lower coverage takes 18 to 24 months when taper is established and maintained.
📍 Filling Gaps From Damage
For plants that regenerate (yew, boxwood, holly): Gaps often fill through patient work redirecting growth from adjacent areas. Prune the neighboring branches to direct energy toward the gap. Thin the dense areas to reduce competition. This gradual approach works when the gap is moderate (12 to 24 inches) and the species can produce new growth there.
For plants that don't regenerate (arborvitae): Gaps showing bare brown interior can't fill naturally. Your options are pruning around them to make the gap less obvious, installing new plants if possible, or accepting the gap as part of the hedge's character.
Prevention: Maintain proper taper to prevent lower loss. Address disease and damage promptly. Choose species with gap-filling ability (yew, holly) for situations where damage risk is high.
Privacy hedges fail when they develop thin spots, gaps, or sparse interiors that you can see through. These problems usually come from not enough light reaching the interior and lower branches, from damage or disease creating dead sections, or from plants growing unevenly based on sun and wind. Improving density starts with understanding what caused the thinning, because the solutions are different.
The most common issue is shade-induced thinning at the bottom and interior. When the hedge's dense outer growth blocks light from reaching inner branches, those shaded areas gradually decline and die. This is just the plant doing what it naturally does—shedding growth it can't maintain without light. The fix isn't fertilizer or more water. It's opening the hedge to allow light penetration, which means accepting slightly less density on the outside to maintain density throughout all levels.
Privacy Hedge Improvement Steps
- Figure out where the hedge is thick and where it's sparse — what's the pattern?
- Identify the cause: shade from poor taper, damage gaps, uneven sun, species limitation.
- Determine if the species can fill sparse areas or if gaps are permanent.
- Establish or improve taper if shade is the main problem.
- Redirect growth toward gaps by selectively pruning dense adjacent areas.
- Set realistic expectations — some gaps close, others need acceptance or replacement.
Winter Protection & Deer Damage Prevention
Seasonal care that preserves health and appearance
Winter damage comes in several forms needing different protection. Heavy snow and ice can splay or break branches, especially on multi-leader evergreens like arborvitae. Winter burn from wind and sun on frozen soil browns foliage on exposed faces. Deer browsing removes tender growth creating gaps. Salt spray from roads or driveways damages roadside hedges. Each has specific prevention that works better than trying to fix it after.
Here's the vulnerability: evergreens keep losing moisture through their needles all winter while roots can't replace it from frozen soil. This creates drought stress even in snowy weather, showing as brown or bronzed foliage particularly on south and west faces getting full sun and wind. Damage is worse on newly planted hedges (first two winters) and exposed sites without snow cover insulating the base.
🎁 Burlap Wrapping Technique
When to wrap: Newly planted hedges first two winters, hedges on exposed windy sites, multi-leader arborvitae prone to snow damage, roadside hedges getting salt spray, high deer pressure areas.
How we do it: Install stakes 12 to 18 inches outside the hedge creating a frame. Wrap burlap around the stakes, not against the foliage — this air space prevents moisture buildup and disease. Secure with twine at top, middle, and bottom. Leave the top open for air circulation or create a peaked cover if snow load is your main concern.
Timing matters: Install late November after the plant has hardened off but before major snow. Remove early April after the last hard freeze. Don't wrap too early or leave on too late — excess moisture and heat promote disease.
❄️ Snow Load Protection
Multi-leader arborvitae and upright juniper are vulnerable to splaying. Install support straps or netting before heavy snow. Gently brush snow off after storms using upward broom strokes — never pull downward. Don't walk on or pile things against snow-covered hedges.
🦌 Deer Damage Prevention
Physical barriers work most reliably: burlap wrap, chicken wire frames, or commercial deer netting. Repellent sprays need monthly reapplication and work inconsistently. Plant less palatable species (boxwood, yew) over favorites (arborvitae). Accept browsing or fence the whole property — protecting individual hedges long-term is difficult.
The simplest and most important winter protection is often overlooked: adequate watering going into winter. Deep water every 7 to 10 days through November until the ground freezes. Hedges entering winter well-hydrated withstand stress far better than those going in dry. This is especially critical for new plantings and fall installations throughout Rye and North Hampton. Once the ground freezes, additional water doesn't help, but that pre-freeze hydration makes real difference in reducing burn severity.
An arborvitae hedge on an exposed hilltop showed severe winter burn every year on its south and west faces, requiring removal of 20-30% of foliage each spring. After three years of this creating progressively thinner appearance, we installed burlap windbreak on those sides in late November. That winter brought normal snow and cold but minimal burn. Spring required only light cleanup rather than major corrective work. The annual burlap installation ($340 for 60 feet) eliminated recurring recovery costs and prevented the gradual decline the hedge was experiencing.
Why Maintenance Matters
The long-term benefits of consistent care
Hedge maintenance is preventive work that avoids expensive fixes down the road. Properties maintaining hedges annually spend less over five to ten years than those cycling between neglect and correction. Annual care prevents the gradual loss of density, creeping size, and deteriorating form that eventually requires renovation or replacement. It catches disease, damage, and gaps early when they're simple to address.
The other benefit is keeping the hedge doing its job. A privacy hedge that thins at the base no longer provides privacy. A formal hedge that loses geometric precision no longer contributes to the formal design. An overgrown hedge blocking windows no longer works for the property. Regular maintenance preserves the hedge's intended function year after year, making the landscape work for you rather than creating problems you have to work around.
Professional Hedge Maintenance
Schedule one-time correction work or establish ongoing maintenance programs. We serve residential properties throughout Seacoast NH and Southern Maine with species-specific care grounded in plant biology.
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