Hedge gone wild

cazsophieq2019

Hi peeps

Just wondering if it's too late to give my back garden hedge a trim / cut, was going to leave it until end of September to allow for birds to nest, fledge etc but decided earlier this year that I wanted to grow veg and erect a couple of no dig raised beds.  

Only reason I'm asking about the hedge was that someone commented that it might impede the sunshine etc to enable veg to grow germinate etc.  Tbh I didn't think it would be a problem but this comment has got me thinking now.  My back garden is sort of North East facing.

Any thoughts?

As always your help is really appreciated. :-) x

Fairygirl

What kind of hedge?
Birds are only just starting to nest here, so you may need to check it first to see if they're further on than here, and then take a view on how you proceed.

cazsophieq2019

@Fairygirl

I've seen birds with twigs and there's a general pairing off of the wee tweeters as well.  I don't believe they'll be physically in their nests it's probably a bit early for that but then again I could be wrong?  I'm begging to be corrected, was.going to cut tomorrow after that leaving it.

I'm in Antrim which would be along the same .... ish latitude as Scotland.

cazsophieq2019

@Fairygirl meant to say will.get a pic of hedge

cazsophieq2019

Pix of hedge ...

punkdoc

I would say mid March is too late, birds are certainly nesting in my hedges now.

cazsophieq2019

@punkdoc
Yeah have decided that I'm going to leave it until September 😊

fidgetbones

That looks like privet. Check it first to make sure no nests are in it. Then trim it.  It will need doing again in May and then August to keep it tight.

Mander

Check for nests but I think you could give it a light trim now, especially with hand tools for less noise and disturbance. I've got a privet hedge and if I left it until September it would grow taller than the house!

Fairygirl

Yes - you're much further south than me @cazsophieq2019. You're on a par with the south west of Scotland. Mine will probably be at that stage in a couple of weeks or so 

If you're seeing birds collecting material then they're beginning to build. Check later as the others have said, and then you can get stuck into it before the next lot of nesting. Looks like privet to me too. 

cazsophieq2019

@fidgetbones
@Mander
@Fairygirl

thanks again y'all very helpful.  This might however sound like a daft question but, the hedge is very dense.  How on earth does someone check for nests in a dense hedge without disturbing birds possibly already in there.  

Me Doh!!