Services · Tree work
The mature trees behind your hedge need different work at different points in their life. We do the five that come up on almost every Dover garden: pruning, crown thinning, crown raising, crown reduction and deadwooding. Ash dieback assessed as part of every quote. TPO and conservation-area applications handled where the tree is protected.
Selective removal of dead, diseased or structurally unsound parts: branches, buds, roots. The general work every mature Dover garden tree needs on a cycle. Formative pruning on young trees; maintenance pruning on established ones.
Pruning detail & pricingSelective removal of live branches to reduce canopy density. Wind passes through instead of loading the tree, important on Dover's exposed clifftop plots. More light down to the garden below.
How thinning worksAlso called crown elevation. Removing lower branches for pedestrian, vehicle or building clearance, or to open up a sightline down a Dour valley lane. The usual answer when a tree has been under-managed for a decade.
When to raiseReducing the overall height or spread by cutting branches back to lateral limbs of a sensible size. Not topping: that's the wrong approach and we don't do it. Reduction protects the tree's future shape while relieving the pressure now.
Reduction vs toppingRemoval of dead, dying or diseased branches from the canopy. Purely for safety and tree health: nothing structural changes. Ash-dieback triage is a core part of this on East Kent ash.
Deadwooding detailHedge cutting, and height and width reduction: all the boundary work you'd expect from a hedge specialist, done to the same standard as the tree work.
See hedge servicesBefore we cut
Dover District Council has designated 57 conservation areas across the district: Dover Town Centre, Waterloo Crescent, St Margaret's Bay, Kingsdown, Sandwich and more. Any tree over 75 mm in diameter at 1.5 m inside one of them needs six weeks' section-211 notice to DDC before work. A tree with a Tree Preservation Order needs a full consent application to the council. Plots up on the Capel-le-Ferne and St Margaret's plateau also sit inside or next to the White Cliffs SSSI and the Kent Downs National Landscape, so a further Natural England consultation can apply. We check all three, file the paperwork, and quote knowing which window we're working in. No last-minute stop-work order on the day.
East Kent-specific
Chalara ash dieback moved through East Kent hard between 2018 and 2024, and Dover's clifftop woodland and Dour-valley hedgerow ash are heavily affected. Advanced dieback makes the wood brittle and dangerous to climb, and the honest call on a badly-infected ash is often a controlled fell rather than more pruning. We inspect every ash on the quote visit and tell you where it sits on the health cycle before we book any work.
Photos of the tree, what's around it, and your postcode. Same-day price, next available date.