Strimming and overgrowth clearance in Cranbrook

Cranbrook was begun in 2011 and is still building out, so almost every plot here is turf laid on ground a machine levelled a few years ago. There is very little topsoil under it and no established root structure, and what comes through is coarse grass, docks, thistle and whatever seeded in off the surrounding farmland.

The result surprises people. Miss one summer and a small new build garden does not look untidy, it looks like a piece of the field it was built on, because that is close to what it is. Cutting it back is quick, flat, open work and often inside the two hour minimum.

The plateau here is open and largely treeless where the newest phases are going up, and the boundaries between finished housing and the next phase are where the growth is. Strips between a fence and a site hoarding, banks left from levelling, and verges nobody has adopted yet all run away in a single season.

Those are straightforward cuts on young, soft growth and they suit a half day covering a whole run rather than one plot at a time. Where a management company or a residents group is organising it, doing the lot in one visit is far cheaper than piecemeal.

With no mature planting, wind runs straight across the plateau, and that has two effects worth knowing. Growth on exposed corners is lower and tougher than in the sheltered pockets between blocks, and cut material blows about far more than it does in an enclosed garden.

In practice that means raking and bagging as the work goes rather than at the end, which is how it is done here even on jobs where the arisings are staying on site.

Estate roads are wide, there are drives and parking courts, and a pickup and trailer can get close to almost every plot, so very little time is lost to logistics. It is one of the easiest places on this list to work.

The station, the education campus and the science park are the usual landmarks people give, and any of them with an EX5 postcode is enough to place a job for an estimate.

South of the town, Skypark, Exeter Science Park and the airport bring a lot of commercial boundary with them: fence lines, car park edges, verges and the strips between units. That work is straightforward, easy to access and priced by the hour like everything else.

Commercial ground usually wants the arisings gone rather than left in a heap, so most of these jobs end with a loaded trailer and a tipping charge passed on at cost.

Because everything here is new, there is very little woody growth to deal with anywhere in the town, which makes the hourly rate go further than it does on established ground half a mile away in any direction.