Garden Maintenance
Garden Clearance
A garden rarely becomes overgrown all at once — a season missed, a house bought with the garden left to itself for years, or a summer where the brambles simply won. We clear overgrown gardens across Cheltenham, Gloucester and the wider Cotswolds, from a single neglected border to a plot nobody has touched in a decade.
George-Stone Gardens
Taking back a garden that has got away from you.
A garden rarely becomes overgrown all at once — a season missed, a house bought with the garden left to itself for years, or a summer where the brambles simply won. We clear overgrown gardens across Cheltenham, Gloucester and the wider Cotswolds, from a single neglected border to a plot nobody has touched in a decade.
Clearance is the one garden job where equipment changes everything. Brush cutters, a chipper and, where access allows, a mini digger will get through in a day or two what would take most people a month of weekends — and because we clear as we go, you are not left with the cut growth piled at the end of the garden waiting for somebody else to deal with.
Get a free quote
Overgrown & Jungle Clearance
Brambles, nettles, ivy and self-seeded saplings are the usual culprits, and they rarely respect a boundary — most overgrown gardens we clear have growth coming through the fence from next door as well. We work from the edges inwards in stages rather than levelling everything at once, which keeps the garden readable as we go and gives us the chance to spot wildlife before a brush cutter does. Hedgehogs, slow-worms and toads all shelter in long grass and log piles, and all three are easy to miss.
Underneath the growth there is nearly always something worth keeping: a stone path, an old apple tree, a set of steps, the original line of a border. Finding those things before the machinery reaches them is part of the job, so we walk the garden with you first and agree what stays. Anything you're unsure about we leave standing until you have seen it uncovered — it is far easier to take something out next week than to put it back.
Full Site Clearance
Where a garden is being rebuilt rather than rescued, clearance goes further: back to bare, level ground ready for the next stage. That means lifting turf, digging out roots, stripping old planting and dealing with whatever an older garden has buried — concrete bases, forgotten slabs, rubble from a previous build and, more often than you would expect, a pond somebody filled in years ago.
We take out the structures most people would rather not tackle themselves. Collapsing sheds, rotten decking, glass greenhouses, failing fence runs and unwanted raised beds all come out on the same visit, and stumps can be ground out so the ground is genuinely usable rather than simply cleared around them. When clearance is the first stage of a design or landscaping project, we schedule it so the site is ready in the week the build begins.
Green Waste, Access & Making Good
Clearance produces a remarkable volume of waste — a modest overgrown garden can fill several tipper loads. Everything we cut is taken away as part of the agreed price, with green waste going to a licensed composting site and any hard waste separated for proper disposal. Nothing is left bagged up behind the shed for you to find a solution to later.
Where we chip on site, the chippings can stay and be reused as a mulch on borders or paths, which saves a tip run and the cost of buying bark in. Access is worth raising early: a shared drive, a narrow side passage or a flat above changes how waste comes out, and it is far easier to plan for than to discover on the morning. Paths, drives and shared entrances are swept and washed down before we leave.
Nesting Birds, Protected Trees & Invasive Weeds
Clearance sits closer to the law than most garden work. Active nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and from March to August that matters a great deal in hedges, dense ivy and overgrown shrubs — exactly where clearance work goes. We check before we cut, and where a nest is in use we move to another part of the garden and come back to it once the birds have fledged.
Trees may carry a Tree Preservation Order, and any tree in a conservation area needs notice given to the council before work starts — worth establishing before anyone quotes to take one out. Japanese knotweed, bamboo and horsetail need identifying rather than strimming, because cutting and moving knotweed spreads it and turns a garden problem into a legal one. We'll tell you what we have found and what it means, including the occasions when the honest answer is that you need a licensed specialist rather than us.
What Happens After the Clearance
A cleared garden looks bigger, brighter and a little bare, and open ground does not stay open for long — the same growth finds its way back within a season or two. Most clients follow a clearance with something that holds the ground: new turf, a membrane and bark or gravel finish across the borders, fresh planting, or in some cases the start of a full garden design.
We can carry out all of it, so a garden moves from cleared to finished without a second contractor and a second round of quotes. If you would rather keep things simple, a regular maintenance visit every few weeks is usually enough to stop a cleared garden going the same way again — and it costs considerably less than clearing it twice.
Our Work
Garden Clearance Gallery
Explore More
Other Maintenance Services
Everything You Need to Know
From our process to project timelines, find answers to all your questions about working with George-Stone Gardens.
George-Stone Gardens — the facts
Established 2007 · Cheltenham, Gloucestershire · gsgardens.co.uk · 01242 234 929
Awards & accreditations
- RHS Gold Medal — Landscaping and build. Awarded at Tatton Park Flower Show 2023 for construction excellence. Judges cited near-faultless build standards.
- Chartered Institute of Horticulture — Gareth holds CIHort chartered professional status.
- BALI member — British Association of Landscape Industries.
- Approved Jacksons Fencing installers — trained in acoustic, timber, and security fencing systems.
Team credentials
- Laura — Principal Garden Designer. Trained at the Royal Gardens at Highgrove. Graduated under Robin Templar-Williams, 5-time RHS Gold Medallist.
- Callum — Principal Landscaper. RHS Gold Medal recipient for construction precision at Tatton Park Flower Show 2023.
- Kirsty McGeorge and Ian Stone — Co-founders. RHS Gold Medal recipients. Combined 35+ years in landscape design and construction.
Investment
- Projects from £40,000. Complete garden transformations typically £40,000 to £100,000+. Design, landscaping, and build are incorporated within a single integrated project.
- 24-month establishment support available as an optional extra following project completion.
Service area
- Primary area: Cheltenham, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Broadway, Chipping Campden.
- Extended coverage: within 45 minutes of Cheltenham across Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds AONB.
- Listed and conservation area experience across Grade II properties and AONB sites throughout the region.
Start the Conversation
Every garden starts differently. We begin by listening — about your property, how you live, and what you are hoping this outdoor space could become. You may have a clear brief or just a feeling that something needs to change. Both are the right place to start a landscaping project.
We respond to all enquiries personally. We'll get back to you within one working day.