How often do you cut your box hedges?

[hididdlyho]

My neighbour just got into a row with me over our boundary box hedge and accused me of not maintaining it. Also, she complained that a few leaves sometimes fall onto her side, even though I do get a broom and try to pull as much as I can over on to my side as per her previous request. The same happens at my side when she cuts it which I'd have thought you'd expect to happen! I'm cutting it every 4-6 weeks in the spring/summer/autumn, which to be honest is more than I would have thought was needed

I've been trying to prioritise it as I know she's very garden proud (but retired, so has the time to do it). Our garden collections are fortnightly, so and cutting 1 out of 3 box hedges pretty much fills the bin each time, I would quite like the bin space and time to do a bit of 'fun' gardening like growing flowers and weeding the borders, which I would struggle to do if I'm supposed to be trimming the hedges every week!

Well she's a bit much, isn't she! Perhaps suggest she puts up a fence so she never has to look at a single tiny leaf ever again 🙄

I have two box hedges and cut them back twice a year, August and again in November.

They get a bit longer between spring and the end of August but I'm not prepared to disturb nesting birds. Every year we have several small birds nesting in them. Sometime the August cut is delayed a few weeks if birds are sitting on a second clutch of eggs.

Your neighbour sounds like a PITA

3 times a year.
it holds its shape greatly and doesn’t look unkempt.

She's always had a bee in her bonnet over the hedges, It sounds like she got into it with the lady who had our house before us as she wanted to let it grow higher for privacy and she wanted them to be trimmed perfectly square at all times. I'm not starting to see why, as she started one sentence with 'I was just watching you out of my bedroom window (wtf?!), and you should be cutting the hedge forwards, so the clippings fall on your side'. When I explained I have hypermobility and can't physically hold the trimmer that way and do that motion, it descended into her list off her ailments and how we're much younger and healthy than her, so should be maintaining our garden better! I am out there for a few hours a week, so it's not like I'm doing nothing.

I think there may be more to it than the hedge as we've always got on well I thought, not sure if her health has declined or something. I feel a little bad for arguing back, but honestly, she was very confrontational and it took me off guard. I don't think it's right to dictate what your neighbours do with their own garden. My neighbour the other side, has an extremely overgrown garden which backs on to our's and the Ivy and bindweed spill over to our side, but I wouldn't dream of telling them they need to spend their days off sorting it out!

This is my thinking, it's a handful of a times a year job. I sometimes wonder if she's out there with a tape measure and a set square, as she's cutting it every week sometimes and them getting mad that it's a bit longer at our side! I had to bite my tongue and not say, 'look you're making more work for yourself which is pissing you off and you're also cutting well most of our side of the hedge'. She's fussing over the couple of inches depth of height on our side that she can't reach with her long reach trimmer! I don't understand how any leaves are even falling on her side as there's 2ft of hedge between our gardens, it must be literally a couple. Even my Mum who's retired and really into gardening has said it's excessive, but she has quite a wildlife friendly garden, so is on the relaxed side when it comes to hedges etc.

NDN tried to tell me I didn't cut it at all last year which is bollocks. I've left it two thirds trimmed and told her to enjoy looking at it. I've already cut it twice this year, so sod wasting my day off work if she doesn't even remember I've done it. DH says now just to cut the hedge a couple of times a year like we wanted to when we moved in. I don't want to be a shitty neighbour, but after her tirade today I'm more inclined to do this. Do you think this is reasonable?

When the box moths get to you she'll have something to complain about. Until then she's being absurd.

Yes, I think it's bad for the hedge to cut it when it's really sunny and no rain isn't it?

Probably cut our 4 or 5 times a year. It can look a bit overgrown when it has its growth spurt in Spring but I don't care. I am not prepared to spend 3 hours (our house is surrounded on all 4 dsides by hedges) cutting it more often than that.

3-4 times a year. You NDN sounds like a right pain in the arse frankly.

She's a total curtain twitcher. Part of the reason I do less gardening now is she often comes out her her house and tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing in the garden, so it's just not fun. DH has escaped most of her past decade of rants as he doesn't like gardening so is never out there and I think she knows he would politely shut her down, whereas I've always tried find a compromise. She went on about how I should put down artificial grass, as my lawn has some bald patches due to having dogs (which you'd expect). It got bad because our elderly dog kept peeing there and he passed away earlier this year, so the soil is slowly recovering. I politely told her we don't like fake grass, so won't be doing that but she kept harping on about it.

She's probably extra annoyed with because I've not mowed my back lawn for a few weeks and sown some clover to help toughen up the grass and she told me she just spent ages digging every 'weed' out of her lawn. I think the only way she could see the worst bald patch was by leaning over the hedge to have a good nosey. I honestly hate the feeling that she's watching me, which I've always suspected given the way she criticises what our other neighbours are doing. I've also found myself having a quick look to see if she's out there first, so I can avoid listening to her complain.

On the plus side, I've been wanting to move house for a while and DH seemed a lot more motivated than he has been after this morning when he saw the way NDN had a go at me! Seen a few potentially houses with no nearby neighbours and big gardens, so hopefully this could turn out to be a blessing, assuming she doesn't try to keep arguing with me about petty stuff.

Thanks to everyone who read and responded. I sometimes struggle with my mental health and often feeling like I'm not doing 'enough', so it reassured me to hear the majority aren't out there working full time and then cutting their hedge every week or two on their days off!

Once a year, twice if I'm very motivated

Box is very slow growing and should be cut once a year in the Summer according to Top Buxus website who produce box maintenance products. It’s unusual for box to be used as a boundary hedge. Could your hedge be privet?

It could well be privet, it has very small leaves like box, but I think that just because it's getting cut so frequently, so not getting the chance to grow. Thinking about it my boundary hedge, with the other neighbour (which we both cut our sides just a few times times a year has bigger leaves like privet). I've assumed it was a different type of hedge on each boundary, but them all being privet seems more likely. Should I be cutting a privet hedge every week or two to maintain it properly do you think?

I just looked up privet as I don’t have any myself. It needs cutting twice a year. The only other plant with small leaves I can think of which is used for hedges is called lonicera nitida and that one does through out a lot of growth although I still only cut it twice a year because time. Either way your neighbour is clearly being a pain and you risk her finding something else to moan about if you fall in line about the hedge(as I’m sure you’re aware)

Headphones in, water garden with hose. When she calls you swing round violently as if startled and drench her.

Honestly- you don't need to put up with her talking to you like that! Obviously don't do the above but I find a kind of bemused chuckle works well for this kind of person.

You need to just shut her down. Next time she tries to tell you what to do just say that you’ll do what you want in your own garden including cutting your hedge or mowing your lawn when it suits you. She keeps on because you keep placating her. I’d probably also say if she carries on you’ll stop cutting the hedge altogether, but I can get a bit shirty at unreasonable behaviour.

Also tell her to stop fucking watching you.

So far she's not had anything further to say, so hopefully she'll just ignore me from now on. I did make it clear she's demanding too much from me and her expectations were unrealistic. If she does try to say something about the hedges or my garden, then I'm just going to tell her I'm not going to have these conversations with her anymore. I'll make sure my DH is around when the hedges get the last cut of the year, as I doubt she'll dare to speak to him in the confrontational way she spoke to me. It's a relief that I now have confirmation of how crazy she is and how little respect she has for me, it means I can ignore her without feeling any guilt!

Privet is fine with 2-4 trimmings a year depending on your preference. Your neighbour is a nutter.

She really is and I'm starting to suspect she has a more serious mental illness and isn't just being a nosey parker. She was absolutely seething with me about the last time I cut the hedge around 6 weeks ago. I told her I'm not a mind reader and she needs to tell me when the problem happens, so I can see if there's something I can do to fix it, rather than stewing and blowing up at me weeks later. I don't actually think there can't have been many leaves gone on her side as she cuts our half of the hedge anyway except for a few she can't reach (despite us repeatedly asking her not to). If she had mentioned it at the time, I think she must realise that she would have sounded ridiculous.

A few months back she spent a good 10 minutes complaining that my dog was wagging it's tail against the shared wall and making an annoying noise. when she finally let me get a word in, I explained that she isn't because we have furniture against that wall, but next time the noise happens to knock and let us know, so we can come round and hear it to try to work out what's causing it. She then said it must be our pipes and not to worry about it. She also tried to tell me my long hair must have blocked her drains, even though we've not had any issues with our sinks getting blocked and I use those debris catchers on my plugholes. I'll be glad to move away from her.

She doesn't sound well.

Politely ignore her. If pushed, be clear that YOU like YOUR garden a certain way, so you'll be doing your garden how you like. Whatever you do won't be enough for her, so stop trying.

Then ignore. Do your weeding, your planting, your BBQ your sunbathing, whatever, and 8fbshe has a pop, tell her "I'm in my garden, so I get to choose"

How could your hair possibly block her drains?

We have privet. We cut twice a year (early March and late Sept). Like a PP, we have a tonne of robins and finches nesting in it, so no way would I cut it between those times - it’s actually illegal to cut hedges during bird nesting season, so tell her to put that in her pipe and smoke it.

I know right, I was clearly donning my invisibility cloak and chucking fistfuls of my hair down her plugholes just to piss her off 😆. When I pointed out each time she cuts her hedge, it also drops a few leaves my side, she was absolutely outraged, like she believed there's some forcefield which prevents leaves from falling outside her boundary! Most importantly, who even cares unless someone is deliberately chucking leaves over the neighbour's hedge?! I assume she's never walked in a woods, otherwise her head would have exploded on seeing all the leaves on the ground.

I've enjoyed the past week of her not talking to me blaming me for something, long may it continue. DH has had a renewed burst of enthusiasm to move house and has been running around doing tip runs and putting things into storage. I see no downside, as I don't believe this strange neighbour is capable of getting along with others, so I don't think there's anything I could have done differently.

A top gardener, I can’t remember who, said box should be trimmed on Derby day ! June, because it has time to recover before frosts starts. Also not to trim it before rain! Not sure why. So every year I’m watching the weather around Derby day and this year it just hasn’t been done but it’s top of the list when we have time. Privet could be different, I don’t know, I haven’t got that.