Site & Garden Clearance

The plots we get called out to

Clearance work covers a lot of ground. Most weeks it is a rental garden that has been left between tenants, a probate property where nobody has cut anything back for years, or a plot that needs stripping before fencing, groundworks or a new build can start. We also get commercial sites that have quietly been let go: yard edges, car park boundaries, the strip of scrub behind the units that nobody has looked at since the place was built.

Whatever the size, the process is the same. We come out, walk the plot with you, and give you one written price for the whole job rather than a day rate that creeps up while you watch.

Brambles, scrub and self-set saplings

Land that is left alone always goes the same way. Brambles come first, then nettle and bindweed take the gaps, then self-set sycamore, ash and willow push up through the middle of it. Leave it five years and what used to be a lawn is a young woodland with stems as thick as your wrist.

At that point it is a chainsaw and chipper job, not a strimmer job. We cut everything back to ground level, chip what will go through the machine, and grind or dig out the stumps where the ground needs to be usable afterwards.

Landlords, letting agents and builders

A good share of our clearance work is for people working to a deadline rather than a wish list. Letting agents ringing about a changeover with a week to go, builders who need clear access before the diggers turn up, executors and solicitors trying to get a house presentable for the market.

We are fully insured for commercial sites and can send our public liability certificate, risk assessment and method statement before we set foot on site. If there is a site induction, a parking restriction or a narrow access to think about, tell us when you ring and we will plan the job around it. Proper invoices for the books, no messing.

What a clearance usually includes

• Free site visit and a fixed written price
• Brambles, nettles and overgrown undergrowth cut right back
• Self-set saplings and small trees felled
• Overgrown hedges cut back hard or taken out completely
• Ivy stripped off walls, fences and outbuildings
• Stump grinding where the ground needs to be flat and usable
• Everything chipped and taken away in one visit
• Full public liability insurance and waste paperwork on request

Nesting birds, 1 March to 31 August

This one matters and we will always raise it. Wild birds, their nests and their eggs are protected while in use under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and scrub, brambles and thick hedgerow are exactly where they choose to nest. The main season runs from 1 March to 31 August.

It does not mean clearance stops for six months. It means we look before we cut. We walk the site properly first, and if we find an active nest we leave that section standing and work around it until the young have fledged. If your job genuinely cannot wait and the plot is full of nesting birds, we will tell you straight rather than take the money and hope. Outside those dates a whole plot can usually be cleared in one go, which is why autumn and winter are the easiest and cheapest time to book one in.

Cleared, carted away and left ready

Everything green goes with us: brash, brambles, hedge trimmings, timber, leaf litter and turf, chipped or loaded and off site the same day. What we cannot take is the household rubbish that tends to appear in a neglected garden. Fridges, tyres, paint tins, rubble, old asbestos shed roofing and general fly tipping all need a licensed carrier with the right permits for that material. We will flag anything like that when we quote so you can book a skip, and we will work around it rather than leave you with a surprise on the day.

The point of a clearance is what happens next. We finish with the ground raked over and level enough to work with, so a fencer can run a line, a landscaper can turf it, or you can simply see the boundaries of your own garden again. Tell us what the plot is for and we will leave it to suit, whether that is scraped back to soil, left rough for machinery, or tidy enough to photograph for a listing.