Tree Removal
Dead, dangerous or badly placed trees taken out whole or dismantled in sections over the house.
Learn more →Screens are the most common tree job on the North Shore
Most blocks here have some kind of planted screen — down a driveway, along a boundary, around a pool. Lilly pilly is the default, with photinia, murraya, viburnum, camellia and a fair amount of ageing conifer from earlier decades. They are all easy plants that become difficult the moment they are left alone for a few seasons.
The problem is nearly always the same. The hedge is now taller than the ladder, the base has gone woody and bare, and it has grown a metre into the neighbour's side. At that point it is not a trim, it is a reduction, and it needs a saw as well as shears.
What the work involves
We set the line first — the height and face you actually want and can maintain — then cut back to it, taking the top and both faces including the boundary side where access allows. Dead and bare internal wood is cleared out so light can reach the lower growth again.
On an overgrown screen the first cut is deliberately conservative on species that do not reshoot well, and deliberately hard on those that do. Lilly pilly, murraya, photinia and viburnum will come back from old wood and can be reduced properly in one visit. Conifers cannot: there are no dormant buds in the brown interior, so anything cut past the green stays brown permanently. That is the single most common piece of irreversible damage done to North Shore hedges, and we will not do it to yours without telling you what will happen.
Psyllid, scale and the rest
Lilly pilly psyllid causes the pimpled, distorted new growth almost every North Shore hedge shows at some point. Trimming off the affected flush and encouraging strong new growth manages it better than spraying does, and resistant cultivars exist if you are replanting. Sooty mould on a murraya or citrus usually means scale or aphid underneath, which is a garden-care issue rather than a pruning one, but we will point it out.
Boundaries
Where a hedge straddles a fence line, the neighbour's cooperation makes the job twice as good and half as awkward. You are entitled to cut growth that crosses onto your land back to the boundary, but cutting the far face properly needs their permission, and a five-minute conversation beforehand avoids a long dispute afterwards.
Booking
Hedge work bundles well with other jobs on the block — a hedge cut and a pruning round on the same visit costs less than two separate callouts. If a hedge has genuinely become a row of trees, the job may be lopping or removal instead, and we will quote it as what it is.
Ring (02) 9090 4915. The service area pages cover what grows well where, and the cost guide explains pricing.
More services
Explore our other services
Tree Loppers
Weight reduction, branch and deadwood removal on overgrown gums, turpentines and planted exotics.
Learn more →Tree Pruning
Crown lifting, thinning and clearance pruning done to Australian Standard so the tree survives it.
Learn more →Stump Grinding
Grinding the stump and buttress roots below ground so you can turf, pave or replant over it.
Learn more →Stump Removal
Stump and root plate dug out entirely where footings, pipes or a new slab need clear ground.
Learn more →Palm & Bamboo Removal
Cocos and Bangalow palms taken down in a driveway-width space, and running bamboo dug out properly.
Learn more →Emergency Tree Work
Storm damage, split trunks and limbs on roofs, with 24/7 response across the North Shore.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How often should a lilly pilly hedge be cut?
Two to three times a year keeps a lilly pilly screen dense and inside its lines on the North Shore, with the main cut in spring after the first flush. Once a year lets it get leggy and woody at the base. If yours has been left for several years, the first cut is a reduction job and it may look thin for a season before it fills back in.
Can a hedge be cut back hard without killing it?
It depends on the species. Lilly pilly, murraya, photinia and viburnum shoot readily from old wood and take hard reduction well. Conifers — cypress, thuja and similar — do not: cut back past the green and you get a permanent brown face that never recovers. We will tell you which one you have before cutting anything you cannot undo.
Do you clean up the clippings?
Yes, that is most of the labour on a hedge job. Clippings are chipped or bagged and taken away, and beds and paving are blown down before we leave. If you want the chip left on the garden, say so. Where a hedge backs onto a neighbour's property, we clear the far side too if access is offered.
Does a hedge need council approval?
A maintained hedge trimmed to its usual lines generally does not. But a 'hedge' that has been left for fifteen years and is now a row of six-metre trees may well be regulated, particularly in Ku-ring-gai and Willoughby where height and trunk-diameter thresholds are low. If yours has become trees, we check before cutting.
Free, no-obligation