How much bush trimming costs depends on whether your contractor charges by the hour or by the bush. On average, homeowners across the U.S. pay about $63 per hour or $10 per bush to have a professional trim their bushes.
The size of your bushes, how many bushes you have, and other factors can affect the overall price. Depending on those factors, a typical price range for professional bush trimming is $50 – $75 per hour or $6 – $15 per bush.
How Much Does Bush Trimming Cost?
When the bushes in front of your house start looking shaggy, you might want to hire an expert to trim them for you. But how much will you likely pay for someone to trim your bushes?
- National average cost: $63 per hour or $10 per bush
- Typical price range: $50 – $75 per hour or $6 – $15 per bush
- Extreme low end: $25 per hour or $4 per bush
- Extreme high end: $90 per hour or $20 per bush
The actual cost of bush trimming depends on the city where you live and the specific contractor you hire, but these numbers can give you a general idea of how much you should expect to spend. A generally reasonable price to pay is $50 – $75 per hour or $6 – $15 per bush.
More affordable contractors can sometimes charge as little as $25 per hour or $4 per bush, while a premium contractor might charge close to $90 per hour or $20 per bush. Especially simple or difficult trimming jobs can also result in these low-end or high-end prices.
On This Page
- Cost Estimator by Bush Size
- Other Factors That Affect Cost
- Extra Services
- Cost of DIY Bush Trimming
- Cost of Bush Trimming by Location
- FAQ
- Conclusion
Cost Estimator by Bush Size
Generally speaking, whether your contractor charges by the hour or by the bush, you’ll have to pay more to have a larger bush trimmed than a smaller one. As you might expect, the per-bush flat rate increases along with bush size.
Size affects per-hour pricing, too, since larger bushes will take longer to trim, resulting in a higher bill.
Assuming you have 10 bushes of the same size in your landscape, your overall cost of professional bush trimming would be around:
- Small bushes (less than 2 feet): $40
- Medium bushes (2 – 4 feet): $60
- Large bushes (4 – 6 feet): $100
- Extra large bushes (higher than 6 feet): $160
Other Factors That Affect Cost
Aside from the size of your bushes, there are several environmental and situational factors that can raise or lower the cost of professional bush trimming.
Quantity
Having a large number of bushes (think 25 or more) trimmed at once can result in a lower price per bush. Some contractors give discounts for especially large jobs, similar to buying in bulk.
How much money you could save depends on your specific contractor. Ask about any bulk discounts when getting your quote.
Location
If your bushes are too close to a building, fence, or other structure, they could be more difficult to trim than bushes out in the open. The same goes for bushes in the middle of a landscape bed or otherwise cornered into a tight spot.
Contractors who charge by the bush may ask a higher rate for bushes in difficult locations such as these.
If your contractor charges by the hour, your bill will similarly increase, since maneuvering around the bushes without causing damage will most likely take more time.
Pro Tip: Include the location of the bushes in your job description to get a more accurate quote from your contractor.
Debris hauling
When a landscaper is done trimming your bushes, all those extra branches, twigs, and leaves have to go somewhere. Many contractors will charge an additional fee to clean up and haul the debris for you.
Hauling fees can add $25 – $100 to the total cost of bush trimming, depending on how much debris there is and whether or not the contractor will have to pay a dump fee.
Frequency of service
Signing up for regular bush trimming service, usually on a basis of once or twice a year, could result in a lower rate than paying piecemeal every time you want your bushes trimmed.
If your landscaper offers regular service plans, he or she most likely will suggest one as a way to save on the costs of trimming your bushes.
Extra Services
Some other landscaping services go naturally along with bush trimming. Adding these services will add a significant amount to your overall cost. However, just like having a large quantity of bushes trimmed by the same company can result in savings, bundling multiple services can sometimes earn you a discount.
The ability to bundle landscaping services depends on your specific contractor, but tree trimming hedge trimming, and mulching are often offered with bush trimming.
Tree trimming
Many landscapers who trim bushes can trim trees, too. Besides the possibility of saving you money, having your bushes and trees trimmed at the same time is a good idea because it would give your whole landscape a manicured look.
You don’t want to distract from your newly tidy bushes with a scraggly overgrown tree.
Tree trimming costs vary tremendously since there are so many different sizes and types of trees. Generally, pricing for tree trimming follows the same basic principle as bush trimming: Larger trees or trees in difficult locations will cost you more money.
Added cost: Anywhere from $75 to $1,500
Hedge trimming
In the same vein, having your hedges trimmed at the same time as your bushes could benefit your wallet and your landscape’s appearance.
And no, hedges are not the same thing as bushes. A hedge is basically a row of bushes planted close together, and it requires a different trimming technique than a solitary bush.
As with trees and bushes, the size and location of your hedge will affect the price, so there’s a pretty wide range of what you could end up paying.
Added cost: For typically sized hedges, between $200 and $800
Mulching
If you have bushes planted in a landscape bed, you may want to tidy up the bed itself along with the bushes by installing fresh mulch.
Overall mulching costs are hard to calculate without specific details, since the price depends on the size of the bed and the type of mulch you want (wood chips, rubber, dyed, etc).
Added cost: $15 – $40 per cubic yard of mulch
Cost of DIY Bush Trimming
Even if your thumb isn’t particularly green, trimming your own bushes should be an easy enough project. It can get more difficult, of course, depending on the size and location of your bushes.
If you have an especially tall bush, for example, you may need to work from a ladder, which could present a challenge for many people.
Equipment needed
If you decide to take a crack at trimming your own bushes, here are the tools you’ll need and approximately how much each one will cost (based on average prices from Amazon, Lowe’s, and Home Depot).
| EQUIPMENT NEEDED FOR DIY BUSH TRIMMING | COST |
| Tarp | $10 |
| Work gloves | $10 |
| Safety glasses | $10 |
| Garden shears | $20 |
| TOTAL | $50 |
How to trim bushes DIY in 3 steps
1. Lay down a tarp. Before you start working, lay a tarp at the base of the bush to catch twigs, leaves, and other debris as you cut them off. This step will make cleanup much easier later on.
2. Start at the bottom. Starting at the bottom of the bush and working toward the top, use your garden shears to cut overgrown branches back at the base.
3. Pay attention to shape. As you trim, do your best to maintain the bush’s natural shape so new growth won’t look wonky. Also make sure the crown (or top) of the bush is narrower than the base (or bottom) so sunlight can reach all the branches.
While you work, you’ll want to wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from stray debris and work gloves to protect your hands from scratches.
DIY cost vs. professional landscaper cost
Trimming your own bushes has an upfront cost of about $50 (unless you already own the necessary tools). That cost remains the same regardless of how many bushes you have or how big they are.
On average, if you have 10 bushes on your property, you’ll pay a professional landscaper about $90 to trim them all once. Remember that number can change drastically if you have more or less bushes or bushes of different sizes.
Since DIY bush trimming is so inexpensive and an easy project almost anyone can do, it’s definitely worth a try. If you don’t like your results after the first time (or you simply don’t want to do the work at all), you can always bust out the bigger bucks to hire a professional landscaper.
Cost of Bush Trimming by Location
Keep in mind that the prices we’ve presented so far are national averages. Your costs — either for hiring a professional or purchasing your own equipment — will vary depending on where you live.
FAQ About Bush Trimming
Generally speaking, the best time to trim your bushes is late winter or early spring, before the growing season. The worst time to trim is after August, as the new growth could suffer damage from having to endure winter so soon.
The rules are a little different for flowering bushes. Bushes that bloom from old growth (the branches you would probably trim back) do better when you trim them after flowering, whenever that may be for your specific plant.
On the other hand, you should trim bushes that bloom from new growth before they flower.
Yes. Over-trimming a bush can damage the plant, cause suckering, or stunt its growth. Trimming about one-third of an established bush’s branches is the ideal amount.
Trimming and pruning are very similar, so the words are often used interchangeably. The main difference is that trimming usually refers to cutting back overgrown bushes, while pruning usually means removing dead or diseased branches to improve the plant’s health.
Conclusion
Bush trimming is a necessary part of landscape maintenance, whether you do it yourself or hire a professional landscaper to do it for you. DIY is the far more affordable option, with a one-time equipment cost of about $50.
If you don’t have confidence in your own landscaping skills and are willing to pay more for an expert’s touch, you can expect to pay approximately $63 per hour or $10 per bush every time you want your bushes trimmed.
Main Photo Credit: Solveig Osk / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
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