The Cost of Hedge Trimming

Today, I found myself coming face to face with just how out of touch with reality I must be. Or — perhaps — how out of touch with reality the world is.

We have various somewhat "rough" hedges around the property, most of them facing the street... and we're responsible for keeping them neat and tidy, to the satisfaction of the HOA "Garden Police." Being part of a HOA is a pain in the ass, but it's the way of more and more communities in this country.

Anyway, because I have a bit of a dodgy back, Mrs. Denmarkguy thought it would be a kind thing to call a landscaping service to (at least) get a quote to do the large thick hedge that overlooks the bay below.

I've typically trimmed this myself, a process done in stages, a little bit every day.

For reference, it's maybe 30 feet (9m) of hedge that is maybe 5 feet tall on the side facing the house, but 15 feet tall on the street side. Maybe that sounds dimensionally impossible, but this particular bit of hedge is also 15 feet (4.5m) thick, making it rather awkward to work on. I usually rely on the clipper side of a 12-foot pruning saw to get to the most unreachable bits of the hedge.

Even realizing and recognizing that it is a non-standard job, I was not prepared for the quotes to get it done by a service: between $1,200 and $2,200.

Seriously? This might take a crew of three 3-4 hours of work + cleanup and a trailer load of debris to the local dump. Which works out to $300 an hour on the low end, on the bids...

Obviously, I'm going to continue doing the trimming, myself... but I really must be in the wrong business here! And who are the people who have that kind of money to throw at yardwork? I guess there must be some unwritten rule that if you call a landscaping service, you "must" have loads of cash to burn... or something.

The pictures here are from my own trimming efforts last year... this year I think I will cut it a little bit lower... after all, this is our "million dollar" water view we're talking about, here.

The cost of services really scares me. Later this month we have a tree service coming out to remove three trees that are increasingly in the view... two of which are not healthy... and that will be $2,300. Again, for about 4-5 hours of work. We wouldn't be using a service, but for the fact that the trees are close to/overhanging power lines.

Doesn't alter the fact that it's a scary amount of money.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!

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2026.07.09 01:35 PDT
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