Diagnosis guides
Every guide here starts from what the hedge is actually doing - browning, dying unevenly, overgrown, gappy at the base, or a neighbour dispute - and works through the real causes before landing on the fix. Written for Whitstable, Tankerton, Chestfield and Seasalter specifically, not generic hedge-blog advice.
Diagnosis · Coastal exposure
One-sided browning near the water is almost always salt, not disease. How to confirm it in under a minute, and the three fixes that actually work.
Read the diagnosisDiagnosis · Dieback
Salt, shade, root compaction, root disease, or box tree caterpillar all produce a one-sided dying pattern. A working contractor's checklist to tell them apart.
Read the diagnosisDiagnosis · Overgrowth
Two tests decide it: how much green growth is left at your target height, and whether the base is structurally sound. Here's how to run both.
Read the diagnosisDiagnosis · Renovation
Usually the cutting shape itself, sometimes shading, occasionally disease. Three causes, three different fixes, and which one applies to yours.
Read the diagnosisDiagnosis · Rules & paperwork
Your existing right to cut back to the boundary, when the formal High Hedges Act complaint actually applies, and why deciduous hedges are a different story entirely.
Read the diagnosis