Keeping a box hedge healthy on a coast where blight and caterpillar are both established.

What's included

• Visual health check for blight (black stem streaks, pink-grey web in damp weather) and caterpillar (webbing, hollowed foliage) before any cut
• Hygiene protocol between properties - tools cleaned between jobs, cuttings from a diseased hedge never composted or reused
• Precision clipping to maintain the low formal line without leaving open wounds that invite infection
• Honest advice on whether a struggling hedge is worth treating or should be replaced

Why this matters on this coast

Mild winters here don't kill the caterpillar overwinter, and damp autumns off the estuary are ideal conditions for blight to spread. A box hedge that's been fine for fifteen years can decline fast once either problem establishes.

If your box hedge is already failing

We'll tell you straight whether it's worth treating (early-stage, isolated, a garden where the original box matters for period authenticity) or whether replacement with a resistant alternative - Ilex crenata, yew, or Euonymus japonicus depending on your soil and light - is the better long-term call.