Local guides
No generic hedging blog posts. These are the rules, species choices and coastal quirks that actually apply to Ramsgate, the East and West Cliff, and the Thanet villages — written by someone who works here.
Planting
The six species that actually survive direct North Sea salt spray on a Ramsgate seafront or cliff-top plot — and the mainland-nursery choices that scorch out within a winter.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
One CA, not three. Why "West Cliff CA" is a myth, and where the s.211 rule bites the moment a stem in your hedge crosses 75mm at chest height.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
What counts as a tree, how the six-week clock runs, when Thanet DC can slap a TPO on to stop the work, and the £20,000 per-tree penalty for skipping the notice.
Read the guideCoastal recovery
How to tell salt-burn from disease, why March pruning kills recovery, and when a scorched hedge is beyond saving.
Read the guideSpecies choice
Both get lumped together as "coastal hedging." On a genuinely exposed West Cliff line, one thrives and one struggles. A working comparison.
Read the guideReduction
Why one-shot hard reductions kill Leylandii on East Cliff and West Cliff, and the two-year sequence that brings the same hedge down without loss.
Read the guideSeasonality
Nesting closure, late-August yew, September final trim, bare-root window, and the two demand peaks you have to book around.
Read the guidePlanting
Mild coastal winters and damp autumns favour the pathogen. If your box hedge is browning, the three replacements actually worth specifying.
Read the guidePests
The first UK record came from Kent. Twenty years on, the caterpillar is fully established. How to spot it before you lose the plant, and what works.
Read the guideRules & paperwork
Part 8 of the ASB Act 2003 gives Thanet the power to order a neighbour's high hedge cut. The process, the evidence, and the common-law alternative.
Read the guide