Griffith home owners given official pruning notices by Transport Canberra and City Services after rain

And it's not your average garden clippers either, but determined, large-scale cutbacks on hedges of all sizes and shapes.

Multiple residents have been issued with official "pruning directions" from the ACT government, warning them to trim their front hedges, or risk having someone do it for them.

It's been a source of angst in many households, as the recent rains have done wonders for the already beautifully maintained gardens of this most beautiful of heritage areas.

Camellias, English box, laurels and conifers - all are looking particularly luxuriant, and none have been spared the attention of Transport Canberra and City Services.

Residents reported receiving form letters with details filled in by hand, most delivered via express post and some by hand.

Some even received the notice twice in one day.

All were ordered to trim the hedge to at least 150mm back from the edge of the footpath, and were given just two weeks to comply.

And no one is particularly happy about it.

One resident of La Perouse Street, who preferred not to be named, was particularly miffed to receive the notice as he prided himself on his gardening skills, and kept his hedge regularly trimmed as a matter of course.

The hedge, which dated back "30 or 40 years" was a source of pride, especially as it had been preserved through recent large-scale renovations on the heritage-listed house.

Another proud owner of a long-established camellia hedge around the corner said the government's timing couldn't be worse.

"The hedge was really coming into its own, and now we've had it cut it right back," she said.

"The right time to trim camellias is after they flower, so ideally we would wait."

She said this was the first time she had received an order to trim the hedge in the two decades she had been living on Durville Crescent.

She was also concerned about elderly residents who might not have been able to secure the services of a gardener as the industry scrambles to catch up after COVID lockdowns and a wetter-than-usual spring.

Yet another resident was cross that she had to spend "hundreds" on having the box hedge trimmed to spare it the government clippers.

"It can't have been more than five or six centimetres over the footpath," she said, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

Most residents preferred to speak off the record, perhaps fearing retribution from a clippers-wielding government official.

They have good reason to be wary; the debacle of Number 2 La Perouse Street, on the corner of Murray Crescent, has for the past 13 years stood as a forbidding reminder of the perils of disregarding government directives.

The huge conifer was subject to a particularly savage pruning in 2008, from which it never recovered.

Today, the giant, massacred hedge is grey, twisted and lifeless; it's no surprise the home's long-time occupant was devastated for years after.

She has recently moved out, and while the garden is still being maintained, there's nothing that can be done about the zombie hedge.

One homeowner who had no qualms about being named or photographed was Dan Carey at 7 La Perouse Street.

He said he was "shocked" to receive the notice, as he trimmed his vibrant Viburnum at least twice a year.

"The intensity of the notice meant you had to act ASAP," he said.

"We've had a 12-to-18-month season that's just been an excellent growing period, and then the gardeners, certainly for six weeks that we were in lockdown, are now chasing the dog's tail at the peak time."

All agree that some hedges did encroach too far on footpaths in some areas, and while there had been no direct complaints to residents, one suggested postal workers delivering mail in the new buggy-style vehicles may have been having trouble making it between mailboxes.

On Thursday, to this reporter at least, Mr Carey's the hedge looked fairly neat and tidy and certainly posed no hazard, but Mr Carey revealed he had yet to trim it, highlighting the "farcical" nature of the notice.

A spokesman from Transport Canberra and City Services maintained that such directives were issued as a way of "ensuring residents' use of the nature strip is compliant with laws designed to protect these valuable assets and the safety of the public".

But he confirmed that if such directive were not followed, there could be consequences - though these were rarely carried through with.

"If a pruning or removal direction is not complied with, the government can undertake the work and seek costs from the owner. Penalties may also apply for non-compliance," he said.

"However, where possible, the ACT government takes an 'engage and educate' approach to these sorts of issues and works with the occupant to rectify the issue.

"Compliance action is only taken as a last resort."

He also pointed out that the ACT government had inspected multiple suburbs in the past few months, including Weetangera and Page in Belconnen, and Reid, Lyneham and O'Connor in the Inner North, usually after receiving complaints about overgrown hedges or "overhanging foliage".

But he said while it had been "an exceptional season for plants", there had not been a significant increase in such complaints.

Meanwhile, another resident who'd received a notice pointed out that many houses along the street had gardens of varying levels of maintenance, and yet all were issued with a notice, including one whose front lawn was bordered with agapanthus.

"How on earth do you trim agapanthus?" she said, incredulous.

Hedges in pockets of Canberra's heritage-listed inner suburbs have a long and storied history, one that is directly linked to city's very distinct lack of fences.

The ban on front fences dates back to 1924, and was part of the Garden City ethos of early city planners.

The thinking was to blend pride one's garden with pride in the burgeoning city, rather than keeping a patch hidden, ghetto-style, from view.

For a time, the ACT government, having insisted on low, neat hedges to encourage community spirit, undertook to trim the hedges on residents' behalf.

But this practice ended in the 1950s as the cost became prohibitive, forcing residents to start taking responsibility for their own nature strips, verges and front gardens.

Residents have been railing against the regulations ever since, with a variety of species, heights, densities and styles throughout the suburbs.

It is a David and Goliath tale of very Canberra proportions, where the suburban hedge was eventually victorious over the ACT government and lived to see a new footpath constructed around its full-bodied expanse.

In 2012, a particularly massive hedge dubbed the "Beast of Braddon" was spared the clippers after a long-standing dispute that ended in the hedge's favour, with the residents agreeing to contribute to the cost of widening the footpath instead of trimming the errant fronds.

The agreement noted the hedge's "age and attraction to the local streetscape".

This enraged other residents nearby, whose hedges had received government-enforced trims with disastrous results.

As it happened, the Beast of Braddon was abruptly razed to the ground with no explanation earlier this year, starkly revealing the previously hidden heritage cottage and demonstrating that Canberra residents won't always bow to early ideas of community spirit.

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