Tidying the 300-year-old, 40ft-tall, 150ft-wide hedge is a two-man job that takes 12 days.
The clippings – this year amounting to nearly a ton – are used to produce a life-saving cancer drug called taxol.
You can visit and see for yourself – the public are welcome every day of the year at the estate and entry is free.
There are even holiday cottages on the property if you fancy a longer stay. And if you book a week in early September, chances are you'll see the hedge-cutting for yourself.
Why you should trim your hedge this weekend
Is now the time for a short back and sides?
Hedgelaying: getting started
We tell you how to get started in the fascinating art of hedgelaying
How to plant a hedge
Alan Titchmarsh talks about the wonders of hedges.
Top tips for topiary
Topiary lifts seasonal gloom and gives the garden a clean, solid framework.
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‘It can take three days to paint one leaf’: The extraordinary, painstaking lives of Chelsea Physic Garden’s Florilegium Society artistsIt sounds like a secret spy agency, but the Florilegium Society is actually a part of one of London’s oldest botanical gardens and they’re on an ambitious quest to record 5,000 plants.
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Isabel Bannerman: The year’s first and most abundantly cheery, uplifting and undemanding of winter flowersCyclamen coum is one of the plants that lights up our gardens at this time of year.
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Country Life's top 10 gardens articles of 2024From the gardens of A-listers and crazed plant hunters to tips on compost, we covered it all in 2024.
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Alan Titchmarsh's garden: No insecticides, no herbicides, just beautiful flowers, lawns, a statue of Repton and a swing seat that's impossible to resistIt’s always fascinating to see what a high-profile gardening personality does with their own home. Tiffany Daneff visits Alan Titchmarsh’s Hampshire garden, to find a place of endless delights and charm. Photographs by Jonathan Buckley.
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RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024: See all the gold medallistsWe take a look at all the gold medallists from the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. All photographs by Andrew Sydenham for Country Life.
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Alan Titchmarsh on Chelsea 2024: 'We need controversy to make us think... Just don’t expect me to regard slugs and snails as my friend'Alan Titchmarsh looks ahead to the 'matchless spectacle' of the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show, the 'Paris catwalk of the British gardening scene.'
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Mark Diacono: Chips, mash, roasted or dauphinoise — all better with your own potatoesThe versatile varieties of the potato make it a great crop to experiment with and, no matter what, nothing beats the taste of home grown
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George Harrison's Garden: How the Beatle and his wife turned a 'tangled jungle' into a magnificent gardenWhen George Harrison first saw the famous Topiary Garden at Friar Park in Oxfordshire, it was a tangled jungle of overgrown yews. The work he began has been continued by his wife, Olivia, and, now, the display is back to its full glory, finds Charles Quest-Ritson.
