All this healthy and safety malarkey. Pollarding works well in my experience. It's standard procedure here. By the CC's. When I paid for it myself though it does cost a lot, but the trees are even more magnificent.
One of my neighbours in Ireland used to sneak over to our garden when we were out to cut 'his' hedge. He left us the clippings.
Sadly nearly dead due to a severe frost a few years ago.
Well Fingal CC removed a alot of nice semi mature maple and popular trees from a nice housing estate area of Swords after a few women complained that it was unsafe to walk on the pathways at night due to the street light illumination being blocked by the trees.Fingall CC acted upon the complaints and removed quite alot of nice trees,to the absolute disgust of the residents.They left the tree stunmps sticking up about 18 inches and have yet to replant with any new younger trees.
What type of hedgerow was/is it?
There are certain times of the year that is a good time to target prune and clip specific hedges in order for them to maintain healthy growth and shape year on year,also with an eye on the weather conditions too..
Idealy you want the domestic garden hedgerow to have about 8-10 inches of soft growth and not thick woody stem.
We prune our hedgerows just before March 1st and just after August 31st each year.This is to allow for nesting birds to nest in the hedgerows and in line with the wildlife act,even though domestic gardens are not covered by the act.
Speaking of the garden,time for me to get out there and plant all my various allium bulbs.Bought in alot of Allium Globemaster,Summer Drummer,Ambassador and alot of Camassia too.
Nice weather out there too.
Have a good morning Bronte.